It is not uncommon to head off on a trip and find yourself running into people you know from home, no matter how far you’ve gone or how small your community is. In the 1970s, ’80s, and ’90s, this phenomenon was often reported on in the Whistler Question’s “Notes From All Over,” which listed the comings and goings of members of the Whistler community, from birthdays and gossip to sightings in other locales.
In the spring of 1984, Inge and Jens Nielsen headed off on a visit to Denmark and Germany. They came across a familiar name on their return trip when the flight crew was introduced; their flight from Frankfurt was captained by none other than Chuck Blaylock.
A pilot for Air Canada, Chuck grew up in Montreal before moving out to British Columbia for two years in 1953. He never moved back, and his family instead settled in Vancouver. On a camping trip at Alice Lake in the 1960s, Chuck decided to drive further up the road and ended up at Green Lake. Growing up in Montreal and seeing lots of families head off to cabins in the Laurentiens, Chuck’s father had told him that if he found somewhere he could drive to in a few hours and be at a lake, he should build a cabin there. It happened that Capilano Highlands Ltd. was selling lots in Emerald Estates and the Blaylocks purchased one right on the lake.
Before working for Air Canada, Chuck had played Junior hockey, and even played internationally. The combination of a lakefront property and winters with three feet of ice on Green Lake meant Chuck, who remained an avid hockey player, became known for informal hockey games. He kept a light outside the house that could illuminate nighttime games and he would clean a good-sized rink, eventually even buying a snowblower.
With no hockey arena in Whistler until late 1992, Chuck was part of negotiations to have Whistler teams come down for games when the arena in Squamish opened in 1978 and helped found the Whistler Hockey Association with Bill Barrett, Tom Hickey and others. Whenever hockey was being organized in Whistler from that time on, Chuck was sure to be involved.
Chuck also instructed for Jim McConkey at the ski school on Whistler Mountain and became very involved in the small ski-area community. In an oral history interview in 2011, Chuck remembered that once they got telephones installed, it was not uncommon for Emerald residents who were out of town to call their neighbours to check on their property. Neighbours let each other know where the key had been left out and Chuck would often go over to neighbours’ houses to check on their pipes and the snowload on the roof. As Whistler and its needs grew, Chuck became part of the Whistler Health Planning Society (renamed in 1985 to the Whistler Health Care Society) and volunteered his time for numerous organizations and projects.
Upon hearing Chuck was piloting their flight, Inge Nielsen sent a note up to the captain. In return, she, Jens, and their 12-year-old niece Iben who was coming to visit Whistler for three weeks were all invited up to tour the cockpit. Inge described it as “incredible to see the swoop of the horizon through the wrap-around windows” and the June 7, 1984 edition of the Question thanked Chuck for “safely spiriting them home.”
