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KNUTE’S CHALET A thick slice of ski heritage on the banks of the Beaver River
words & photos :: Kristin Schnelten In 1976, Knute Dohnberg bought a little ski chalet at the base of Beaver Valley Ski Club. It wasn’t much—an open main floor, bedroom upstairs, running water, some well-worn furniture. He paid just $18,000 for the place, which sat right on the bank of the Beaver River. “I was in my 20s then. I was single, too busy with girlfriends and skiing to care about a fancy house. The place was perfect for me at the time,” laughs Dohnberg. But he wasn’t just any young, single guy carving up the hill a day or two a week. Dohnberg had recently been hired as the club’s ski school director (a position he’d go on to hold for almost 15 years) and would eventually become both the general manager and director of marketing. Big Jim’s Ski and Rental Shop, a fixture at the hill for decades, was a side project for Dohnberg, as well. At a time when each Ontario ski area had its own
big personality, Knute Dohnberg was the man at Beaver Valley. Fifteen years prior to Dohnberg’s arrival at the club, back when it was just Beaver Valley Resort, Malcolm MacLean constructed three chalets on the edge of the river, just across the bridge from the main lodge. The centre chalet was a dining space for skiers as well as living quarters for the innkeeper and cook, Chris Parfree, who later became Beaver Valley’s first general manager. Guests of the matching cabins on either side—one for men
and one for women, bring your own sleeping bag—gathered at the centre chalet and its long, communal table. “It was very simple stuff, a sort of early, budget bed and breakfast,” says Dohnberg. After a particularly poor-weather winter, the owner threw in the towel, severing lots and selling the buildings separately. Howard Hawke purchased the larger centre chalet, then sold it to Bob Henderson before Dohnberg became the new owner, a young man now with his own permanent place to party. 75
