Identity area
Type of entity
Corporate body
Authorized form of name
Garibaldi Ski School
Parallel form(s) of name
Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules
Other form(s) of name
Identifiers for corporate bodies
Description area
Dates of existence
1966-
History
Garibaldi Ski School was the main ski school operated on Whistler Mountain by owners Garibaldi Lifts Ltd. (Garibaldi Lift Co.). The ski school was opened by ski school directors Roy Ferris and Alan White, who persuaded Ornulf Johnsen from Norway to manage the school. After two years, Johnsen moved on to Grouse Mountain and Jim McConkey was asked to take over instruction at Whistler. McConkey had taught skiing in Utah for ten years before moving to Todd Mountain in Kamloops, then agreeing to manage the ski school in Whistler on the agreement that he would also handle equipment rentals and the ski shop. The ski school grew to have a few salaried instructors and more than 25 regular instructors who worked on commission. Joe Csizmazia and Hans Mozer had started using helicopters for skiing in 1966, and McConkey took over the helicopter operations in 1968 for six years. He, along with a couple of his top instructors, acted as guides for heli-skiing off of the regular runs on Whistler Mountain. Ski lessons were a bargain at $18 for six two-hour classes. In 1969, the mountain introduced adult summer ski programs in addition to children’s camps. The adult summer lessons combined skiing with apres and summer recreation. After a few hours of skiing in the morning, the group would have lunch at the Roundhouse and then go swimming, canoeing, horseback riding, or golfing. Each week’s camp ended with a slalom race and an evening barbecue. McConkey also began holding instructor courses where weekend skiers could learn to become ski instructors. A large bell, which was located at the base of Whistler Mountain's gondola in Creekside, called skiers from the school to their lessons. McConkey left the ski school in 1980, at which point Bob Dufour took over as its director. Since the 1980s, Whistler and Blackcomb mountains have combined more than just their ski schools, and thousands of skiers, and now snowboarders, continue to learn on the slopes of Whistler Blackcomb
Places
Whistler Mountain
Creekside
Whistler
Legal status
Functions, occupations and activities
Ski school
Mandates/sources of authority
Internal structures/genealogy
General context
Relationships area
Access points area
Subject access points
Place access points
Occupations
Control area
Authority record identifier
Institution identifier
Rules and/or conventions used
RAD, July 2008 version. Canadian Council of Archives.
Status
Level of detail
Dates of creation, revision and deletion
Catalogued June 2022.