‘This is like my Super Bowl’: Whistler locals win big at WSSF multimedia contests

TYLER RAVELLE WINS PHOTOGRAPHER CHALLENGE; GEOFF BROWN’S OUT OF SERVICE TOPS INTERSECTION, WHILE JEREMY ALLEN AND SAM TUFF’S DEAD BARBIES TAKE HOME PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARDS

BY MEGAN LALONDE

TYLER RAVELLE HASN’T missed a World Ski and Snowboard Festival (WSSF) Pro Photographer Showdown in the 12 years he’s called Whistler home. Each April—aside from the last three, when in-person WSSF events were on hiatus due to the pandemic—he’d sit in the audience, soaking up inspiration from some of the world’s top action sports photographers and dreaming about seeing his work beside theirs.

“It’s really amazing to finally get my chance to have my images on the screen now,” he told the crowd gathered in the Westin Resort and Spa’s ballroom on April 12. “This is like my f— ing Super Bowl every year … it’s surreal.”

Call him a Super Bowl champion. April 12 was Ravelle’s turn to stand on stage and hoist the big cheque, after judges named his entry “Best in Show” at WSSF’s 2023 Sea to Sky Photographer Challenge. That title came with a $3,000 grand prize.

“I’m honestly freaking speechless,” Ravelle said after the win.

“This isn’t about me, it’s about relationships and the relationships a camera can harbour—when you take a photo of someone, it’s an intimate moment,” he added. “Thank you guys.”

Ravelle was the last of six Sea to Sky photographers to present his work at the event. His five-minute slideshow, which kicked off to the strains of “My Tears Are Becoming a Sea” by M83, earned some of the loudest cheers of the evening for aweinspiring shots of a dirt biker turning downslope underneath a jagged peak, a park rider soaring through the air with the city of Vancouver in the background, and others where Ravelle’s use of light and perspective highlighted the vastness of the terrain his subjects were riding, from steep, snowcovered slopes to sharp-ridged sand dunes.

Squamish-based photographer Jeremy Allen took home the People’s Choice award, earning a $250 Gibbons gift card on top of the $500 awarded to each of the five runnersup, for his slideshow packed with bright, compelling shots.

Unlike WSSF’s Intersection and 72-Hour Filmmaker Showdown, competing photographers weren’t restricted to any tight shooting windows or location limits. Instead, the six photographers were invited to share career-spanning slideshows featuring their all-time favourite images “capturing sport, culture and the human spirit.”

The Challenge replaces the popular Pro Photographer Showdown, which brought in photographers from around the world to showcase their skills in Whistler each year up until the last in-person WSSF in 2019. This time around, with WSSF now owned and operated by Gibbons, the contest exclusively featured local talent.

In addition to Ravelle and Allen, the lineup of photographers included Pemberton local Ben Girardi; Squamish’s Spencer Watson; U.K. born, Whistler-based Rob Perry; and, the sole woman in the field, born-and-raised Whistlerite Jessica Braidwood.

Their work was judged by a panel full of heavy-hitting local photography legends: Abby Cooper, Anastasia Chomlack, Blake Jorgenson, Mason Mashon and Scott Serfas. Snowboard photographer Chad Chomlack served as host for the evening.

GEOFF BROWN’S OUT OF SERVICE TAKES INTERSECTION WIN

Out of Service, the veteran crew led by Geoff Brown, was the big winner at Intersection on April 13, the last of three multimedia events held at the Westin as part of this year’s WSSF. Brown’s mountain culture spoof of South

Park was voted “Best in Show” by the judges, earning the crew a grand prize of $10,000 cash.

Intersection first-timers rounded out the podium, with Brin Alexander’s Dongboyz + Kendra taking second place and $5,000. In addition to Alexander, the crew included Will Kovacic, Alastair Spriggs, Jack MacDougall, Jack Dobson, Anders Liljedahl, Jason Fleury, Christopher Kirschner and Kendra Nimchuk.

The third spot’s $2,000 cash prize went to Dead Barbies, a majority female crew headed by Sam Tuff alongside Rachael Anderson, Meg Cumming, Zoe Blewett and Zak Mousseau, featuring Cat Agnew and Crystal Legoffe. Tuff’s Dead Barbies also walked away with the $500 People’s Choice award as voted by the very stoked sold-out audience.

The contest challenged five crews of athletes and artists to shoot, edit, and submit a four- to six-minute winter action sports edit “that truly captures the beauty of ski and snowboard culture,” all within the span of just 12 days.

Also in the running were Matchstick Productions’ Logan Pehota, Liam Fournier, Craig Murray, Mark Abma, Sandy Macewan and Anatole Tuzlak; and Revelstoke-based allfemale crew The Blondes, with Emily Childs, Janelle Yip, Jordy Kidner and Tonje Kvivik. ■

PIQUE’S GUIDE TO LOCAL EVENTS & NIGHTLIFE

Here’s a quick look at some events happening in Whistler this week and beyond. FIND MORE LOCAL EVENT LISTINGS (and submit your own for free!) at piquenewsmagazine.com/local-events

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Kids Creation Workshops

APR21-28

ARTS + ENTERTAINMENT

Anonymous Art Showkids Creation Workshops

Andrea Mueller will host two workshops where kids can explore mixed media to create a piece of art for the Anonymous Art Show KIDS in partnership with Arts Whistler (12 years and under).

Young Sea to Sky artists will have their artwork on display during the Whistler Children’s Festival. All artwork will be for sale during the festival, and artists will remain anonymous until their art is chosen by its new owner.

> April 27, 3:30 - 5:15 p.m.

> Art Pop (321- 2063 Lake Placid Rd.)

> $15 at andrealikesart.com/collections/kidsclasses-and-parties/products/kids-creationworkshop-april-20-april-27-take-part-inthis-years-anonymous-art-show-kids-1

EH! COMEDY TOUR WITH STEEV LETTS

EH! Comedy Tour makes its stop in Whistler with a show featuring three of the best comedians in Canada, as seen on Just For Laughs, CBC Gem and many viral videos on social media. You’re in for a hilarious night with two solid opening acts and headliner Steev Letts!

> Whistler Brewing Company

> April 23, 8 - 9:30 p.m.

> $25+ fees

Community

A ROOF OVER OUR HEADS: EXPLORING MOUNTAIN RESORT HOUSING POSSIBILITIES

Attendees will hear from industry experts who will present and discuss how Whistler is working to address housing challenges before expanding the lens to explore housing examples across North America to give insight into resort housing models and solutions. The audience will have the opportunity to engage in a Q&A following the expert panel discussions.

> April 27, 2 - 4:30 p.m.

>Whistler Conference Centre

> $25

Making Connections Dementia Friendly Social Club

More like a social club, this program starts with 45 minutes of gentle fitness, followed by games and brain stimulating activities, and socializing over a light lunch. The goal is to slow cognitive decline in the afflicted and allow caregivers to bond, share experiences and develop their own support network. $5 per person per session, registration and prepayment for a block of sessions is required. No drop-in at this time. Register at www.whistlermac.org under the events tab, Making Connections Program.

> Wednesdays, 10:30 a.m. - 1 p.m.

> Catholic Church of Whistler

> Free

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Tales of Toad Hall: Beyond the Poster

BY ALLYN PRINGLE

IN THE SPRING OF 1973, a group of Whistler residents who had been renting a property together took a photo as a memento before they moved out. Fifty years later, that photo is best known as the Toad Hall Poster, and is widely recognized for its nudity and carefree spirit. While many people who come into the Whistler Museum know of the poster, we’ve heard a lot of different origin stories for the image, and a range of names for those it depicts.

If you had arrived in the Whistler area in the late 1960s and asked where to find Toad Hall, you might have been directed to an entirely different building than the one featured in the Toad Hall Poster. The first Toad Hall in Whistler was a house built beside Nita Lake by Alf Gebhart in the 1950s. Alf and his wife Bessie moved their family to Alta Lake in 1936, when Alf purchased a sawmill and lumber camp. After operating the mill for some years, Alf built a house where he and Bessie lived until the closure of their sawmill.

property operated as the Soo Valley Logging Camp. The camp, which included a collection of small cabins, was located at the north end of Green Lake, across the lake from the Parkhurst mill site. The logging camp can be seen in the background of some of the photographs taken by the Clausen family, who lived at Parkhurst in the 1950s. By the 1970s, however, the mill at Parkhurst was long closed, and the Soo Valley Logging Camp no longer housed loggers.

In the early 1970s, the Soo Valley property housed skiers looking for affordable housing near Whistler Mountain. The entirety of the property was reportedly rented for $75/month (adjusted for inflation, that would be just over $500/month today), which could be quite reasonable when divided amongst enough residents. By 1973, this second Toad Hall was a popular place to find a party or a bed. Unfortunately, however, for those who found a home there, the buildings were scheduled to be demolished that summer, and their days at Toad Hall were numbered. The end of Toad Hall was marked by the creation of the Toad Hall Poster.

The house was then occupied by Alf’s son Howard and his wife Betty while Howard was working for the railway. When they left the valley as well, the house was sold to Charles Hillman, a teacher living in Vancouver.

Hillman began renting out his house soon after lifts opened on Whistler Mountain in 1966, and it was some of his tenants who gave it the name of Toad Hall. Tenants came and went over the next few seasons, and by the time Hillman decided that he wanted to start using his house as a ski cabin, it would appear that none of the original tenants he had rented to were left. Those who were living there were reportedly amicably evicted, and the Toad Hall name moved to a different property.

Before it became known as Toad Hall, the

While we know some of the stories behind Whistler’s Toad Halls, there are a lot of things we don’t know. How did two different properties on two different lakes come to be named after the home of Mr. Toad from The Wind in the Willows? In a time long before there were dedicated Facebook groups for housing in Whistler, how did people hear about and find Toad Hall from across the country?

We’re looking forward to finding out more about Toad Hall from a few former residents on Wednesday, April 26, when we’ll be joined by John Hetherington, Terry “Toulouse” Spence, and Paul Mathews at the Whistler Museum for our next Speaker Series. Tickets are available at the Whistler Museum and all are welcome. n

1 OUT OF WSSF Out of Service was the big winner at Thursday night’s Intersection, the last of three multimedia events held at the Westin Resort and Spa as part of this year’s World Ski and Snowboard Festival (WSSF). The veteran crew led by Geoff Brown returned to the Intersection stage on April 13 with a mountain culture spoof of South Park, earning the grand prize of $10,000 cash. For more, flip to page 43. PHOTO

The Dusty’s crowd celebrated the end of Creekside’s ski season with a conga line and music by DJ Gainz on Sunday, April 16.

BY couple hundred locals on GLC’s dance floor on Monday night, April 17 to mark the end of another winter on Whistler Mountain. PHOTO SUBMITTED 4 SAYING THANKS CIBC, which sponsors Whistler Blackcomb’s Mountain Host and Mountain Safety (better known to some as “the yellow jackets”) volunteer programs, covered the tab for an end-of-season dinner as a “thank you” to the volunteers. It “was so appreciated by all who attended,” wrote volunteer June Kleban.