Back in 1965, a few co-workers from BC Hydro were looking to create a ski club—more like a home-away-from-home where they could spend weekends, they imagined, preferably somewhere with easy access to the great outdoors.
A brand-new ski resort slated to open north of Vancouver that winter seemed like a good spot. A few acres of land the B.C. government had reportedly reserved for non-profit sports clubs interested in leasing lots in Nordic, near the new gondola, didn’t hurt.
The “Power Mountain Ski Club” opened its doors on Nordic Drive in December 1967, just in time for New Year’s Eve. The member-owned A-frame would only stand for about 12 years, until a newly-installed wood stove sparked a fire early one morning in January 1980. Flames ripped through the building before firefighters could arrive, burning the chalet to the ground. Luckily, everyone inside managed to escape.
Members eventually got to work rebuilding, battling through financial struggles and in some cases even hauling the materials uphill on foot. At the time, “there was no road,” pointed out current Fireside Lodge member Johanne Lalonde.
It took a few years, but the second iteration—a bigger, better structure—rose from the ashes to welcome members back about four years later. It even had a new name: the Fireside Lodge.
“I think it was because of [the fire] that [this lodge] has been able to live all this time,” said Lalonde.
A few lodge founders were among the three generations of revellers who joined current Fireside Lodge members (and DJ Foxy Moron, better known in some circles as Ace MacKay-Smith), for a party celebrating the “new building’s” 40th anniversary last Saturday, Sept. 23.
“We’ve been planning this for quite a few months,” said Lalonde of the event. “When we started talking about [the anniversary] a few years ago, we thought it’d be important to highlight the history … so we started digging up all kinds of records, and asking people who are still around, you know, ‘What happened?’”
Organizers “couldn’t believe how many people showed up,” on Saturday, she said. So many former members “got to see people they haven’t seen in years.”
Now officially owned and operated by Fireside Outdoor Recreation Club, the simple-but-cosy log cabin is the last of the original ski clubs still standing—and functioning as a non-profit—in Nordic, said Lalonde.
Fireside can accommodate up to 50 guests on a nightly basis, split across its 16 hostel-style dorm beds, six private rooms and six more loft rooms that fit up to five people each. There’s a fully-equipped kitchen with enough stoves, microwaves, fridges, freezers and cookware for guests to prepare their own meals on-site; a games room; and a spacious living room to host hang-outs.
That’s where current and former members sat together on Saturday, listening to stories, looking at old pictures, and reading newsletter clippings, said Lalonde. “We just couldn’t believe how extraordinary of an effort people put into [building this lodge],” she explained. “It makes us want to now take care of it even more, because we know how rare this is.”
That same cooperative spirit that built the lodge not once, but twice is still in play. Fireside’s current roster of 87 members keeps up with lodge maintenance during bi-annual “work parties,” and continues to breathe life into the space throughout the seasons.
“It’s just incredible when you see what people have done to make it what it is today—like they built it with their own hands,” said Lalonde. “You don’t see this happen anymore in this day and age.”
Find more info at firesidelodge.org.
