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Whistler’s first ski-school director and founder of Grouse Mountain’s ski school, Ornulf Johnsen, is going to be inducted into the Canadian Ski Hall of Fame and Museum.
Founded in 1982, the hall of fame was created “to honour the accomplishments of pioneers, competitors, coaches and visionaries in skiing and snowboarding. This special space shares the stories of Canadians who have excelled throughout Canada and the world or contributed to the advancement of snowsports in a spectacular way,” according to the non-profit’s website.
The ceremony is held in Montreal Nov. 15, and Johnsen will be inducted in the alpine builder category.
The award is fitting, when looking back on the years Johnsen has given in service to the sport and the people who pursue it. Born in Norway in 1934, skiing has intertwined his life as far back as he can remember. In a previous story published in Pique, he described his relationship with snow.
"It was just part of life," he explained. "After you finished breast-feeding, it was like 'here's your baby bottle, here are your skis ... When you live in Norway, when winter is a major part of your life, the only way you'll go out and play is either on skates or on skis."
The sport would prove instrumental in his military career during the Cold War, where he taught NATO personnel to survive harsh winters, and eventually led him to London, England, and then Chile, teaching skiing and learning Spanish.
Then, Johnsen came to Vancouver in 1965, when Franz Wilhelmsen launched Garibaldi Lift Company, in what would become Whistler.
He spent time drumming up interest before its opening, making presentations in Vancouver to entice skiers.
“For example, I had set up a training session at various YMCAs, we invited people to come and train with us to strengthen their bodies to come skiing,” he said.
“Some people came up from Vancouver to ski—they have skied in the little mountains, and they come up and looked at Whistler and had to turn around and go home."
Anywhere else in North America couldn’t compare to the sheer vertical drop of Whistler, which was part of what drew Johnsen into the mountains that could go tête-à-tête with European slopes.
When his contract at Garibaldi Lift Company came to an end, Wilhelmsen convinced Johnsen to stick around, introducing him to various friends on the Coast.
Describing Willhelmsen as a gentleman, their relationship led to an opportunity for Johnsen to become the owner-operator of Grouse’s first ski school.
“I did something that few people have. I gave [Grouse] a business proposal and told them that I don't want to be a skiing instructor. I said, 'I want to own this place,'" he said. "And so, in the presentation, they accepted my offer, and I owned Grouse Mountain Ski School for about 25 years.”
Before adaptive skiing programs were created, he started skiing lessons for the blind at Grouse, hiring two women who worked in health-care to lead lessons.
“I knew anyone who can feel the wind in their face from skiing would take to it,” he said.
Other accolades from his time at Grouse included spearheading youth programming, which saw 400 kids each day on weekends. He also brought graduated ski lengths to Canada and eventually sold the ski school in 1987 to Grouse Mountain Resort.
Grouse Ski School alumni, Rob Wallace and Gerda Koch, were instrumental in his nomination and worked with him during his ownership of the ski school.
In an email about the news, they wrote they had worked on the application for more than five years.
For Johnsen, the induction came as a surprise, and he expressed gratitude to Wallace and Koch for their time working together and for putting his name forward.
“Most of my life, I've never done anything or expected to be recognized by somebody because we're doing something really well," he said. "If someone needs something, you go and help them. You don’t need any reward for it. The reward itself was helping."
