Alex Douglas is a retired rentals and retail manager of Mt. Seymour ski area and a former Dave Murray Summer Ski Camps camp director. He moved to British Columbia in 1975 and took a job at Mt. Seymour as a liftie (chairlift operator), rising to the role of rentals and retail manager, a position he maintained until he retired in 2020. He started in 1972 as a camper with the Toni Sailer Summer Ski Camp, and, after it became the Dave Murray Summer Ski Camp on Whistler Mountain (then Blackcomb Glacier), he became the camp director in charge of day to day activities of the camp, a position he held for 22 years. For decades prior to his retirement, Douglas and his wife lived year-round in the two-storey log cabin overlooking the Mt. Seymour beginner ski area that was built by Ole Johansen, Seymour’s first official park ranger, in the early 1940s. Douglas is a self-described collector and history-lover, collecting memorabilia and other souvenirs from the Mt. Seymour's early ski pioneers of the 1930s and 1940s. He ran the North Shor Pioneer Skiers Reunion for decades in tandem with the Hollyburn Heritage Society. In the summers, he worked as a tour guide, first for the Rocky Mountaineer train, running his own tours around Vancouver and the North Shore under the name 'Uncle Al's Cabin Tours'. In the winter of 2019, a documentary movie called “Echo Across Mt Seymour” had its world premiere at the WIMFF, following Alex’s efforts with the Mt. Seymour History Project and Uncle Al’s Cabin Tours to keep the history of early skiers alive. Since retiring, he has continued working as a travel guide in Vancouver in the summers and skiing during the winters. He is a member of the North Vancouver Museum and Archives, the Whistler Museum and Archives, and the Deep Cove Heritage Society.
published
Based on creator's label.
Toni Sailer Summer Ski Camp building their T-bar on Whistler Mountain in 1977.
Identification according to ADOUGLAS-03-011:
- 001 (28-4) – June 1977, “Tower 2 raising.”
- 002 (28-5) – June 1977, “Plowing road to tower 2.”
- 003 (28-9) – June 1977, “Me up on tower 2 connecting cable. 9 about the best.”
- 004 (28-11) – June 1977, “Me up on tower 2 connecting cable.”
- 005 (28-13) – June 1977, “Operation putting in new trash. P-13 has old trash out.”
- 006 (28-14) – June 1977, “Operation putting in new trash.”
- 007 (28-18) – June 1977, “Bringing down the main cable on the cat.”
- 008 (28-19) – June 1977, “Bringing down the main cable on the cat.”
- 009 (28-21) – June 1977, “Danny pushing the [cable?] under the [idler] wheels.”
- 010 (28-22) – June 1977, “Another shot of glacier. Noel coming down in Cat.”
- 011 (29-2) – June 1977, “Mike + Nole on a tower nice back drop.”
- 012 (29-3) – June 1977, “Mike, Nole, Alex putting cable on wheels.”
- 013 (29-4) – June 1977, “Mike, Nole, Alex putting cable on wheels.”
- 014 (29-6) – June 1977, “Nole + Mike on tensioner.”
- 015 (29-10) – June 1977, “[Crud] cab on top of Whistler.”
- 016 (37-2) – August 12 1977, “Helicopter at tower one, good shot of back of snow.”
- 017 (37-18) – August 12 1977, “Our stuff (towers) on the rocks.”
Excellent (October 2016)
Donated by Alex Douglas.
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