Origins of Skiing in Canada's National Capital Region

Canada's ski heritage is rich, diverse and filled with stories of dynamic personalities that have had a profound effect on the sport and the country. This exhibit traces the origins of trail and downhill skiing, ski jumping and trail and lodge development in the National Capital Region from the late 19th Century to the early 1960s.

Historically, the origin of skiing activity in the National Capital Region is inseparable from the founding and evolution of the Ottawa Ski Club. Thus, this exhibit focuses primarily on the beginnings of various efforts of the Ottawa Ski Club. The Canadian Ski Museum acknowledges the existence of a number of other smaller clubs during the period all of which contributed to the development of skiing but disbanded leaving behind, few, if any, records. Foremost among these was the Cliffside Ski Club that existed from 1919 until about 1942, possibly later, and actively cooperated with the Ottawa Ski Club in lodge and trail development and jumping activities.

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ORIGINS OF SKIING IN THE NATIONAL CAPITAL REGION

Early references suggest that skiing was introduced to the Ottawa region in the late 19th century by an unlikely source, Governor General Lord Hamilton. The grounds of the Governor General’s Residence, Rideau Hall, and adjacent Rockcliffe Park, both a stone’s throw from the parliament buildings, became the focus for the new activity close to the heart of the Nation’s Capital. (The history of skiing and its development in the Ottawa region is inseparable from the evolution of the Ottawa Ski Club. The authors acknowledge the existence of a number of other smaller clubs during the period all of which contributed to this development but disappeared without trace leaving behind, few, if any, records. Foremost among these was the Cliffside Ski Club which existed from 1919 until c.1942 [?] and actively cooperated with the Ottawa Ski Club in lodge and trail development and jumping activities.)

Interest in the sport evolved rapidly and by 1899 the record indicates that “It (was) as common a sight here now to see people with a pair of skis on their shoulder as to see them carrying an umbrella”. (History of the Ottawa Ski Club, 1972, by Herbert Marshall, p.4) Demand for equipment had grown such that in 1901, on February 5th, the Ottawa Journal carried an advertisement for skis and equipment imported from Stockholm.

Eleven years later, custom skis were available from $4.00 up while skis imported from Norway were priced from $3 to $9 a pair. By today’s standards the skis of the early 20th century were primitive to say the least. Mr C E Mortureux, President of the Ottawa Ski Club for 27 years from 1919 - 1946, described a pair of skis he purchased in 1906 as being made of maple, eight feet long, nearly five inches wide, accompanied by “a splendid pole nine feet long”. (Marshall, p.5)

As cross-country or trail skiing gained in popularity, there was a parallel development involving a smaller but equally enthusiastic following: ski jumping. This too originated in Rockcliffe Park on a slope known appropriately as Suicide Hill. It was the “plank hoppers”, as they were described by C E Mortureux , who, between 1910 and the outbreak of World War l in 1914, built the first wooden jumping tower in annual stages that reached a final height in excess of 100 feet. Weekend jumping practice became a popular spectator sport attracting hundreds of spectators and on at least one weekend drawing a crowd estimated at 5,000.

They were the same “plank hoppers” whose need for better jumping facilities provided the impetus for the formation of the original Ottawa Ski Club in 1910. While the constitution of the Club specified that all aspects of skiing be encouraged, the early emphasis on ski jumping ensured that other forms of skiing activity were neglected, trail skiing in particular,. In the winter of 1914 the membership base had finally expanded sufficiently to allow the first cross-country race to be organized in January of that year. At the same time, jumping activity declined as men enlisted for military service at the outbreak of World War l. It would come to an end following the Dominion Championship held in Rockcliffe Park on March 6th, 1915 and would only resume following completion of another jumping tower in Rockcliffe Park in 1920. Unfortunately, the original tower, laboriously constructed in stages over four years, collapsed in a windstorm in the fall of 1915.

Throughout the war years, 1914–1918, ski touring continued as a weekend sport and the main emphasis of the Ottawa Ski Club when it was re-organized in 1919. New trails were surveyed both within the Ottawa city limits and throughout the hills of the Gatineau in Quebec. By 1920 the emerging system covered over 31 kms.

With the ever-enlarging trail system came a parallel need for accommodation and by 1921 no fewer than seven lodges were available to skiers, two (Camp Fortune Lodge and Pink Lake Lodge), were owned by the OSC, the other five were all privately owned.

None of these lodge facilities would have been made available had it not been for the labour and time donated by members of the Ottawa Ski Club and, in the early years, the Cliffside Ski Club.

Of all the many contributions, the most obvious evidence in terms of trails and lodge building was provided, initially, by the Night Riders, and later, the Trail Riders. The following tribute was published early in 1935 in the Ski Bulletin of Boston, Mass. The Ancient and Honourable Institution of the Night Riders, was founded in 1924 by Captain T. J Morin, a veteran of many campaigns, strict disciplinarian and trail-maker extraordinary of the Ottawa Ski Club, who imbued the Company with an esprit-de-corps of such strength that it has subsisted to this day. The Night Riders are run pretty much on the lines of the French Foreign Legion, with the difference, however, that while the Legionnaire gets free board and lodgings, a fat pay of 4 sous a day and his tobacco at half price, the Night Riders get nothing but the opportunity to work for their Club. They pay for their own transportation to the hills unless they prefer to cover by ski, as they often do, the ten miles between the gates of the City and the headquarters of the Club. They pay their membership fees, just like other members, they supply their own food on pain of starvation and, until recently, paid for their own bunks. Lately, however, the Club has relented to the extent of providing them with a free bunk in one or other of the three bunk houses…

Following a period of relative inactivity during the First World War, skiing resumed as a popular weekend sport in 1919. An extension of the railway north in the late 19th Century allowed an ever-increasing number of skiers to explore the trails and hills of the Gatineau. From several stations within Ottawa eager skiers would board slow-moving “snow trains” for the short trip to the hills:

Hundreds of skiers crowded into Union Station, and, pack on back, boarded the northbound train. Skis were placed upright between the backs of the seats, sometimes so carelessly that a lurch of the train precipitated them on the heads of the occupants of the seats on the opposite side of the aisle. Since the coaches always seemed to be super-heated, outer garments were taken off and hung on every available projection, in all colours of the rainbow. There was a continuous passing of people up and down the aisles and between coaches because the journey up was a good opportunity to visit one’s friends…. It was wonderful camaraderie. (Marshall p.33)

This colourful mode of travel would not last. By 1928, it was more convenient to travel by bus or by the increasingly popular automobile as improvements to roads significantly reduced the time it took to travel between Ottawa and the ski area.

Trail skiing continued as the dominant form of winter activity in the Gatineau throughout the 1920s and into the 1930s even though newer trends and techniques were emerging from alpine Europe: the Arlberg Technique, ski tows, downhill and slalom racing in particular. It would be some time before these trends were fully exploited in the Ottawa region deterred by a heavily forested landscape and the absence of open slopes. Nevertheless, there was certainly considerable interest among Club members resulting in the clearing and opening of the Joe Morin Slalom hill in 1932. It was a beginning, an event of no great consequence at the time but one that would eventually and forever change the nature of skiing activity in the Gatineau.

A further eight years would pass before another event allowed the full scope of the European trends to be adopted. It was the installation, in 1940, of a simple rope tow on the Joe Morin Slalom hill, powered by a discarded Cadillac engine. It was also eight years after Canada’s first ski tow was installed on the Big Hill at Shawbridge, Quebec. Even though the OSC’s tow operated until 1944 at something less than optimum efficiency, it was immediately popular accelerating the trend to downhill skiing from “a trickle to a torrent”. Not everybody was pleased about the presence of increasing numbers of ski tows. C E Mortureux, the Club’s long-time President, wrote in the 1945-46 Ottawa Ski Club Year Book:

An epidemic of ski tows, spreading from the heavily infected centre north of Montreal, has broken out in the Gatineau Hills. As there is no antidote for it, all we can do is to express the hope that our members will escape the contagion….. We are entering the ski-tow age. Decidedly a sign of the degeneracy of the times, and not to be commended. However, if these contrivances fail to attract patrons, the operators will have plenty of rope to hang themselves with.

Fortunately, Mortureux’s concerns were unfounded. The enthusiasm for downhill skiing continued unabated accompanied by increasing concerns about congestion on the hills and the potential for safety to be compromised. The Slalom Hill, in particular, was becoming a problem and although the Night Riders widened the hill in 1945 it quickly proved to be inadequate. The Club responded by opening two additional hills (Morning After and Malcolm Macdonald) in the same year, but the overcrowding and safety concerns persisted.

It would take the active involvement of the Federal District Commission (now the National Capital Commission) in 1948/49 to bring an end, at least temporarily, to the problems. The changes in 1948 were unprecedented; “Never before in the history of the Club has so great an advance been made in a single year” (Ottawa Ski Club Year Book 1948-49). The Slalom Hill was widened yet again and another hill named the Viscount Alexander (after the Governor General at that time) opened alongside Macdonald’s.

Throughout the period 1947 to 1959, the opening of new hills and continuous enhancements to facilities attracted ever-increasing numbers of skiers. Between 1947 and the mid-‘50s membership in the Club doubled to 5,000, increased to 7,800 by 1959, accelerating quickly to 10,000 by 1960. Towlines grew longer, the slopes more crowded and, once again, congestion became an issue.

The Club’s response, coinciding with its 50th Anniversary in 1959, was an ambitious development plan to open the present Skyline area with the installation of a poma lift to provide 610 feet of vertical drop compared to the 279 feet of the Slalom Hill. It was an inspired development. Less than two years later, in 1961, a chairlift was installed to capitalize on Skyline’s popularity. The final major expansion came in 1966 with the opening of the Vanier and Expo hills and a T-Bar lift to support them.

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