SUMMER2016
MOUNTAINLIFE
53
words :: Ace Mackay Smith
Every time anA-frame is demolished inWhistler, an
angel loses her skis.
Whistler Valley doesn’t seem to have much appetite for
the conservation of heritage homes. Small cabins are
replaced by log home monstrosities that sit idle until
Christmas rolls around. Even for full-time residents,
it’s understandable that people need larger homes as
families grow, but there is a rising desire to find a way
to preserve old cabins as guest houses or studios, so
Whistler can keep some of its history. Especially when
that history is so colourful.
Peter McLaughlin, a ski racer in New Zealand in the
early 60s, came to Canada on a tanker and hitched
a bumpy ride up toWhistler with a friend who was
stringing cables on the original Red Chair. Living and
working in Vancouver as a biochemist, Peter became
one of Whistler’s original hardcore weekend warriors.
With a group of six guys from his homeland, Australia
and SouthAfrica, Peter wouldmigrate north, stay in a
rentedA-frame, and log up to 80 days on the mountain.
“They didn’t sell season passes back then,” he recalls,
“sowe’d get up at 6:00 a.m. and pay six dollars to ski all
day, then go to
L’Après
, the watering hole at that time.”
After a brief stint back home in New Zealand, Peter
followed his heart back toWhistler and began looking
to put down roots. There were eight staked lots above
Alta Lake on a steep slope with a killer view. Pete, and
then-girlfriend, Eloise acquired the Right to Title, a deal
in trust on one of them for $5,000, and so the building
began. “We were idealists,” he says. “Eloise wanted a
true cabin in the woods.”
MOUNTAIN
HOME
LEFT
Home sweet home. COURTESYPAULAMCLAUGHLIN.
RIGHT
Ashleigh, Jay andbabyOakes - a newgeneration. ACEMCKAY SMITH
