Memories of Red Mountain

Transcript:

[Rossland Museum & Discovery Centre logo on a white screen]

[Black and white photo of Ed Stiles on skis at the Red Mountain ski lodge.]

Al Fisher: And it was – there were three or four key guys in the building of this. There was Ed, of course, and there was a fellow by the name of Ernie Wider, who was a designer of tramways, and he designed the lift up the mountain

[Black and white photo of a lumber yard with a half built ski lodge in the background.]

and they chopped down trees right on the mountain with the towers and built the – built the facility.

[Black and white photo of the chairlift to the left and the ski hill to the right.]

The hill was cut by volunteer labour – ski runs. And us kids used to be the group

[Black and white photo of two men on a wooden platform. The chairlift is above them.]

that packed the bolts and the nuts and the – all the hardware up the mountain to build the ski lift. And we’d take a swing at the cutting of the brush and trees as well at times.

[Colour photo of a sign in the snow that reads “welcome to Rossland. Home of Canada’s highest ski lift.”]

Roly Worsfold: The town must have been getting pretty excited. I mean, to get a lift up Red.

Richie Mann:  Yeah. Yeah, it was unbelievable.

[Black and white photo of children looking at a parade float that has a large model of the ski hill, the chairlift, and the lodge.]

You know, I remember the float in the parade that – that summer before. Yeah, it’d be the Fall Fair. They had a float in the parade, and I got a picture of it there. And, God, is this really going to happen? I really didn’t believe it. But by God, the next year, yeah, it happened. And we were so excited as kids.

[Black and white photo of the chair lift to the right and a half built ski lodge to the left.]

Shirley Vance:  Shirley Pat and I, we walked out there and it was running! And we figured Dad was up at the top, and off we went. We climbed on the thing and up to the top.

[Black and white photo of Phyllis Edwards riding the new chairlift.]

And my dad was so mad at me. Oh, he was mad, because we weren’t supposed to be there, it hadn’t been tested, people hadn’t ridden on it yet, and he was just chewing us out.

[Colour photo of Betty March on skis next to a view of the valley overlooking the ski lodge and parking lot.]

He said, “Oh, you have to ski – ski down. I’m not putting you on that lift again. You’ll have to ski down.” Shirley Pat and I.

[Colour photo of an orange Red Mountain Ski Club single ride ticket. The ticket reads, “The person using this ticket assumes all risk of personal injury, or loss or damage to property.”]

Richie Mann:  That was one thing, too, when the Hill first opened, when Red Mountain first opened, I think a junior pass was $10 and a senior pass was $20.

[Colour photo of a Red Mountain Ski Club visitors’ day ticket. It is a bright red. The ticket reads, “The person using this ticket assumes all risk of personal injury, or loss or damage to property. Not transferable.”]

Ruth Grubisic: $10 and $2.50 for a membership.

Richie Mann:  Well, it could be, yeah.

[Colour photo of a felt patch. There is the outline of a skier in the centre, and the initials RMSC.]

Ruth Grubisic:  That was – we just begged Mom and Dad, “Get us a season pass. That’s all we want for Christmas. We don’t have to have anything else. Just get us a season pass.” 

Richie Mann: And $20 for seniors.

Audrey Mann:  It was that cheap?

Richie Mann:  And then, but Sunday afternoon, juniors weren’t allowed on the hill.

[Black and white photo of a line of skiers at the base of the ski hill waiting for the chairlift.]

So we, you know, we’d spent Sunday morning helping them pack the hill and then we’d get kicked off at noon. So we’d head back over to the Rossland Ski Hill and ski there for the rest of the afternoon.

Ruth Grubisic:  We usually had a course set up at ten, at ten, and so we would practice and we’d count the number of people in the lineup, and if it got below 50, we’d make a dash for the bottom because they would let us on. If the lineup was short.

[Black and white photo of the chairlift mechanisms.]

Jim Delong: And that old lift was – has a lot of memories, because it was it was spooky even when it was brand new, you never knew what was going to happen.

[Black and white photo of a man walking next to one of the chairlift’s chairs.]

Like the – the cable came off the sheaves every now and then.

[Black and white photo of a group of people working on the chairlift.]

Diane Delong: Mhm, and the drive, I remember, was at the top of the lift, the very top of Red Mountain. Usually, they’re at the bottom, but this one was at the top.

[Black and white photo of Paul Jones watching the chairlift from the top of the ski hill.]

And if the lift started going too fast, the braking system on it, there wasn’t any, like there wasn’t a safety thing.

[Black and white photo of men working on the chairlift bull gear.]

So what they had to do was take a big board and stick it in the – in the –  what was it, the bull wheel? 

Jim Delong:  The bull wheel. 

Diane Delong: At the bottom to stop the chair. He would throw this big two-by-four, or whatever it was, piece of wood, and stop it and run to get out of the way in case it disintegrated.

[Trail and District Arts Council logo on a white background.]