When Leanne Dufour came to Whistler Mountain for the 1971-72 season to teach skiing for a year, Garibaldi Lifts Ltd. was still a relatively small operation. Jim McConkey’s ski school had only seven full-time instructors and the lift company had only a few departments who divided up all of the responsibilities of running a ski hill.
Heading into the 1974-75 winter season, Leanne (who didn’t leave after that first season after all) was approached by Jack Bright, the mountain manager in charge of ticket sales, administration, image, publicity and much more, about establishing a new position, that of Mountain Hostess. Though Leanne was given some direction from Jack, she was also allowed a lot of freedom to start the program. She put together a small team; first hiring Judy Johnson and soon after Connie Cathers and Gail Morrison. Over the years, more Mountain Hostesses would be hired as the team grew.
According to Leanne, Whistler Mountain’s Mountain Hostesses “specialized in fun.” They led twice-daily free ski tours around the mountain, organized special events, worked on ski races like the McConkey’s Cup and World Cups, and in many ways served as Whistler Mountain’s public relations and guest services. For the Christmas holidays, they would dress up as elves and ski around with Santa; over Easter, one of the Mountain Hostesses would double as the Easter Bunny and they would hand out candy, which often led to them being followed around the mountain by crowds of children. On Sunday evenings the Mountain Hostesses would go to the different lodges in the ski area (there were still only a handful) and do a presentation about Whistler Mountain. They often showed the film The Snows of Garibaldi and even knocked on room doors to let everyone know there would be a film screening.
Early on Leanne had made herself a nametag that read “Mountain Hostess Ask Me” by writing on a piece of paper with felt pen, putting it in a plastic case, and pinning it to her lift company uniform. Unfortunately, she then spent the day outside in the pouring rain and her nametag soon became illegible. In an effort to make themselves identifiable and differentiate themselves from other employees seen on the mountain, the Mountain Hostesses needed their own uniforms.
Judy decided to approach Franz Wilhelmsen, the lift company president, to get one-piece Bogner suits as uniforms for the Mountain Hostesses. She and Leanne travelled down to Vancouver to put on a fashion show in his office and, as Leanne recalled, his response was, “Sure, I’ll buy those.” Though the suits were expensive, Mountain Hostesses became easily recognized in their navy blue one-pieces with “Whistler Hostess” on the front and back and even written in Japanese on the arm.
As part of her work, Leanne also put together packages to bring ski groups to Whistler Mountain. Working with Penny Wright, who was the manager of the Highland Lodge and then other lodges in the ski area, they would combine airlines, hotels, and ski lessons or lift tickets (depending on the skill of the group) into one package and then approach tour operators such as CP Air. These tours were so successful CP Air even took Leanne and Jim McConkey to Japan to promote Whistler Mountain, travelling to different cities and ski areas where they would put on presentations about the skiing, the accommodations, and more.
Leanne ran the Mountain Hostess program for five years. Before she left she hired Heather Lynskey, who would take over the program from Leanne before handing it over to Karen Krivel. Over the years, as the lift company grew rapidly, some of the duties of the Mountain Hostesses were divided into separate departments, including guest services, events, races and more, while other duties such as the free daily tours were incorporated into volunteer positions, first known as Ski Friends and operating today as Mountain Hosts.
Though Leanne left the Mountain Hostess program, she didn’t quite leave Whistler Mountain, especially as her husband Bob Dufour still worked for the lift company. (Bob worked for Whistler Mountain and then Whistler Blackcomb for a combined 48 years before he retired.) She went back to teach private lessons once her kids were in school full-time and was part of the creation of a ski program at the local schools. Looking back at her years as a Mountain Hostess and their aim to “specialize in fun,” Leanne recalled, “We were very good at having fun because we had the greatest job in the world… being paid every day to go skiing with people.”
