Mountain Life
  • Daily Content
    • Trips & Expeditions
    • Climbing
    • Mountain Biking
    • Mountain Lifer
    • Multiplicity
    • On The Trail
    • Paddling
    • Photography
    • Skiing
    • Snowboarding
    • Stay & Play
    • Surfing
    • The Great Outdoors
    • The ML Interview
    • Travel
  • GEAR
  • VIDEOS
  • STORE
  • Magazines
    • ML Coast Mountains
    • ML Rocky Mountains
    • Vie En Montagne
    • ML Blue Mountains
    • ML Annual
    • ML Subscriptions
  • ABOUT
    • What is ML?
    • Our Team
    • Newsletter
    • Adventure Grant
    • Distribution
  • Podcast
  • Contests
  • CONTACT
    • ML Agency
    • Advertising
    • Contribute
Subscription Form

Get notified of the best News

Social Links
Instagram 22K Followers
Facebook 25K Likes
Twitter 5K Followers
Pinterest 1K Followers
Vimeo 34 Followers
LinkedIn
22K Followers
25K Likes
5K Followers
1K Followers
Mountain Life
Mountain Life
  • Daily Content
    • Trips & Expeditions
    • Climbing
    • Mountain Biking
    • Mountain Lifer
    • Multiplicity
    • On The Trail
    • Paddling
    • Photography
    • Skiing
    • Snowboarding
    • Stay & Play
    • Surfing
    • The Great Outdoors
    • The ML Interview
    • Travel
  • GEAR
  • VIDEOS
  • STORE
  • Magazines
    • ML Coast Mountains
    • ML Rocky Mountains
    • Vie En Montagne
    • ML Blue Mountains
    • ML Annual
    • ML Subscriptions
  • ABOUT
    • What is ML?
    • Our Team
    • Newsletter
    • Adventure Grant
    • Distribution
  • Podcast
  • Contests
  • CONTACT
    • ML Agency
    • Advertising
    • Contribute
  • Skiing
  • Snowboarding
  • The Great Outdoors

From the Vault: Celebrating 75 Years of Blue Mountain Resort – Part 1

  • January 17, 2017
  • Ben Osborne
Total
14
Shares
14
0
0
0
0
0
Total
14
Shares
Share 14
Tweet 0
Pin it 0
Share 0
Share 0
Share 0

After 14 years of publishing Mountain Life in Ontario, we finally gained access to The Vault—Blue Mountain Resort’s historical archive stretching back to 1941, the year Jozo Weider founded the resort. For this 75th anniversary issue tribute we’ve searched through many boxes of unseen material and conducted interviews with BMR insiders. We’ve selected these 75 images and anecdotes—in no particular order—that commemorate life at Blue since that long-ago first winter season of ‘41/’42. We hope you find them every bit as enlightening as we did.

BMR

#1. JOZO’S JUMP
BMR founder Jozo Weider oversaw the construction of this 50-metre jump just a year before his death in a car accident in 1971. The jump was named in memory of Pete Pettersen, a Norwegian who had developed ski jumping programs in Ontario in the 1950s. The jump was the site of the North American ski jumping championships.

 

FRITZ SCHULLER/BMR

 

#2. EXPAT PAINTS BLUE
Czech-born Walter Trier (1890-1951) was an artist and illustrator of international repute who painted this cover of one of Blue’s earliest brochures. Back in Europe, Trier’s anti-Fascist cartoons had raised the ire of the Nazis and Trier fled to England as the Second World War broke out, then settled in Craigleith. Today there is a Walter Trier Gallery at the Art Gallery of Ontario with exhibitions of the artist’s watercolours, drawings and sculpture.

 

ILLUSTRATION COURTESY GEORGE WEIDER’S BOOK BLUE MOUNTAIN, 1990, BOSTON MILLS PRESS

#3. GLADES OF BLUE
“The best fall lines are usually well established and identified by the tracks flowing off trail and leading into the woods. The secret is finding a fall line that doesn’t end in a stream.” So said Blue Mountain President Dan Skelton in 2014, as Blue launched an expansion of its gladed areas.

 

Cavan Dykeman chest-deep at Blue. GLEN HARRIS

#4. THE SLOPESIDE SUNTAN
This was a whole new way to suntan slopeside on a mellow spring-ski day: use your skis as back support!

 

BMR

#5. WHEN POTTERY SAVED THE MOUNTAIN
Blue Mountain Pottery is collected around the world, and was featured on a Canadian postage stamp. Blue founder Jozo Weider turned the clay he found while building ski trails, into a side industry to bolster finances during some lean years in the 1950s. The early work used a signature “flow glaze” technique, the bluegreen shade reportedly an attempt to mimic the colour of Blue Mountain in the summer months. The 1960s saw studio lines including hand-thrown vases and a multi-piece Noah’s Ark Collection. This late-1950s photo shows master potter Dennis Tupy (right) who trained as a ceramicist in Czechoslovakia.

 

BMR

#6. THE DAYTIME DRINK
Why doesn’t anyone do this anymore? Hang out in the sun on the hilltop or mid-slope? And we’ve got snacks, not to mention a bottle of wine! ”

 

BMR

#7. WHEN BLUE BOUGHT THE PEAKS
Back in the day, it was the ultimate Superpass—two mountains, Blue and nearby club Georgian Peaks (rechristened simply “The Peaks”). Blue acquired The Peaks in 1981 and operated it until 1987. A bus shuttled lucky skiers back and forth between the two resorts.

 

BMR

#8. DANCE AT THE SKI BARN
In 1949 Jozo Weider remodelled the Ski Barn from a farmer’s barn near where the Blue Mountain Inn sits today. The many uses for the building included dance hall, accommodation, cafeteria, and pottery in the basement.

 

BMR

#9. THE WORLD COMES TO RIDE
When Ski Cross took off as a spectator-favourite sport at the Vancouver 2010 Olympics, the qualifying event took place at Blue (Ashleigh McIvortook second place, and went on to win Olympic Gold). This was the first World Cup Ski Cross event at Blue, but would not be the last. The Cup returned to Blue in 2011 and ’12 and will again in ’17. Meanwhile, the Snowboard Cross World Cup landed at Blue in ’12 and ’13. “Ski Cross is a pure form of racing,” says Ski Cross Canadian Champion Chris Del Bosco; “head to head, with lots of tactics involved.”

 

GEPA/ALPINE CANADA

10. THE MAN HIMSELF, JOZO WEIDER
The Slovak immigrant and BMR founder had the drive and enterprising nature that led the fledgling resort through some shaky early years, before snowmaking and chairlifts brought consistent crowds. In order to establish the resort, he brought to bear his innumerable skills, including construction, farming, culinary arts, pottery-making, ski instruction, marketing, and engineering. A polymath with vision, pluck and bottomless energy, Jozo Weider turned a hardscrabble farming village into one of Canada’s busiest outdoor destinations.

FRITZ SCHULLER/BMR

 

ML wishes to acknowledge the kind assistance of George Weider in the preparation of this article, in particular his book Blue Mountain (Boston Mills Press, 1990). And we apologize in advance for being unable to credit individual photographers throughout this article, since that information was in many cases not available. We have credited Blue Mountain Resorts (BMR) since all the photos, unless otherwise indicated, are housed in their archive. —Ed.

For more on the history of Blue Mountain Resort, check out: https://www.bluemountain.ca/mountain/history

Total
14
Shares
Share 14
Tweet 0
Pin it 0
Share 0
Share 0
Share 0
Related Topics
  • Blue Mountain
  • Blue Mountain Resort
Ben Osborne

Previous Article
  • THE GEAR SHED

Atomic Backland FR 117

  • January 14, 2017
  • Ben Osborne
View Post
Next Article
  • Features
  • Mountain Lifer
  • On The Trail

Playing with Matches: Piecing Together the Geological Puzzle of the Sea-to-Sky Corridor

  • January 18, 2017
  • Mountain Life Media
View Post
You May Also Like
View Post
  • On The Trail
  • The Great Outdoors

Helly Hansen Presents: Adventure Planning 101 with Squamish SAR

  • Sarah Bulford
  • May 16, 2022
Dynafit-Sea-to-Summit-Delphi-harbor-revised
View Post
  • Skiing
  • Videos

Friday Flick: Skiing with the Gods of Delphi

  • Mountain Life Media
  • May 13, 2022
View Post
  • Skiing
  • Snowboarding
  • The Great Outdoors

Blower Pow and Disappearing Pants

  • Sarah Bulford
  • April 26, 2022
Skiing-the-Chief-North-Gully-Chris-Christie-pano
View Post
  • Photography
  • Skiing

Behind the Photo: Skiing the Chief’s North Gully

  • Mountain Life Media
  • April 4, 2022
View Post
  • In This Issue
  • The Great Outdoors

ML Launches Mushroom Life

  • Sarah Bulford
  • April 1, 2022
Red-fox-snow
View Post
  • Mountain Lifer
  • Skiing
  • Snowboarding

The Underworld: What’s Going on Beneath our Skis and Snowboards?

  • Mountain Life Media
  • March 31, 2022
Stephanie-Sloan-hot-dogging-jump-Griffith-1
View Post
  • Mountain Lifer
  • Skiing

Stephanie Sloan: Passing the Torch

  • Mountain Life Media
  • March 29, 2022
Ryan-Carter-surfers-walking-Lake-Huron-Ontario
View Post
  • CLIMBING
  • Ontario
  • Paddling
  • Photography
  • Skiing
  • Surfing

Paddle, Climb, Surf, Shred: Winter in Ontario

  • Mountain Life Media
  • March 22, 2022
Featured Posts
  • Relic-The-Beachcombers-Ben-Tour-illustration 1
    Requiem for a Relic
    • May 16, 2022
  • 2
    Helly Hansen Presents: Adventure Planning 101 with Squamish SAR
    • May 16, 2022
  • Dynafit-Sea-to-Summit-Delphi-harbor-revised 3
    Friday Flick: Skiing with the Gods of Delphi
    • May 13, 2022
  • 4
    For the Love of SUP
    • May 10, 2022
  • Full-Circle-Everest-The-North-Face-Nepal-prayer-flags 5
    Full Circle: First All-Black Team Attempts to Summit Everest
    • May 9, 2022
RECENT POSTS
  • Nick-Gottlieb-Pereval-Dzhuku-pass
    Touching the Mountains of Heaven
    • May 12, 2022
  • North-Shore-Betty-rummel_t_0110_BP
    Friday Flick: North Shore Betty
    • May 6, 2022
  • Was-It-Worth-It-Kermode-bear-mcallister_PR
    Was It Worth It? A Wilderness Warrior’s Long Trail Home
    • May 5, 2022
Social Links
Instagram 22K Followers
Facebook 25K Likes
Twitter 5K Followers
Pinterest 1K Followers
Vimeo 34 Followers
LinkedIn
INSTAGRAM
mountainlifemedia
22K Followers
Reel Rock 16 is coming to #Squamish! There are two showings 👉 May 20th and June 1st at the Eagle Eye Theatre, Howe Sound Secondary School, in beautiful Squamish supported by @climbonsquamish! #Linkinbio to get your tickets! #climbing #film #filmfest #climbers #adventure #climbon #adventure #squamishbc #tickets
Finding that picture perfect moment with @sweenyj #mountainlifer
The winter that just keeps on given-er! 🤘#mountainlifer
FRIDAY FLICK 💥 This past March, speed mountaineer Benedikt Böhm @benediktboehm rocked a five-hour sea-to-summit expedition up Mount Parnassus in central Greece. Starting at sea level on his road bike at the village of Itea on the Gulf of Corinth, he climbed up to an altitude of 2.414 metres. #linkinbio to watch the film!
I had no idea what to expect from this trip, neither from bikepacking, a fancy term for cycle touring and a sport I’d never done before, nor from Kyrgyzstan, a country most people cannot find on a map. Carl, who I’d only just met recently after moving to Canada—I’d flagged him down after backcountry skiing after seeing his Montana license plate—had invited me on this trip while on a mountain bike ride. I said no. A few weeks later I figured, “Why not?”
The @rab.equipment  dynamic Cirrus Flex is a soft, lightweight hybrid synthetic insulation for mountain-friendly layering. Keeping you warm and perfectly suited to journey in the mountains. #TheMountainPeople #WeAreRab
"@normhann and I lashed paddleboards to the roof of his truck and headed north along the Island Highway, towards Telegraph Cove. Norm had invited me to tag along on a commercial paddleboard group he would be guiding in the Broughton Archipelago. Despite a long history of SUP expeditions, I harboured some reservations."
To date, more than 6,000 people have summitted Everest, the highest point on Earth at 8,848.86 metres of elevation above sea level. And only a tiny handful of those climbers have been Black.
Happy Mother’s Day to all the rad moms out there! Here’s our Art Director & Head Designer @calypsodesign getting cozy with some sharks. #mountainlifer #mothersday
Making core memories on the trails ✨ #mountainlifer
Follow

Subscribe

Subscribe now to our newsletter

Reel Rock 16 is coming to #Squamish! There are two showings 👉 May 20th and June 1st at the Eagle Eye Theatre, Howe Sound Secondary School, in beautiful Squamish supported by @climbonsquamish! #Linkinbio to get your tickets! #climbing #film #filmfest #climbers #adventure #climbon #adventure #squamishbc #tickets
Finding that picture perfect moment with @sweenyj #mountainlifer
The winter that just keeps on given-er! 🤘#mountainlifer
FRIDAY FLICK 💥 This past March, speed mountaineer Benedikt Böhm @benediktboehm rocked a five-hour sea-to-summit expedition up Mount Parnassus in central Greece. Starting at sea level on his road bike at the village of Itea on the Gulf of Corinth, he climbed up to an altitude of 2.414 metres. #linkinbio to watch the film!
I had no idea what to expect from this trip, neither from bikepacking, a fancy term for cycle touring and a sport I’d never done before, nor from Kyrgyzstan, a country most people cannot find on a map. Carl, who I’d only just met recently after moving to Canada—I’d flagged him down after backcountry skiing after seeing his Montana license plate—had invited me on this trip while on a mountain bike ride. I said no. A few weeks later I figured, “Why not?”
The @rab.equipment  dynamic Cirrus Flex is a soft, lightweight hybrid synthetic insulation for mountain-friendly layering. Keeping you warm and perfectly suited to journey in the mountains. #TheMountainPeople #WeAreRab
Mountain Life
  • Home
  • About
  • Contact
  • Subscribe
  • Advertising

Input your search keywords and press Enter.