Iโm convinced my dadโs heart and Norquayโs are one and the same. He was born the same year the hill opened and has been in lockstep with it ever since. The saying โheโs as old as the hillsโ has never applied better. That said, there are others with even deeper roots โ people youโre just as likely to run into at the post office, but who have direct ties to how the hill became what it is.
George Parisโ grandfather, also George, arrived from England in 1894 and was purportedly the first person in Banff to own skis. The story goes they were sent to him that year by a guest at the Brett Sanatorium (then located on what are now the administration grounds). The guest, a Norwegian, had learned that George liked snowshoeing and assumed an introduction to European skis was in order. In no time, he had fallen, broken a ski, and promptly returned to his snowshoes โ leaving an imprint not just in the snow but in Banff history.
One of George Sr.โs sons, Cyril Paris, along with Gus Johnson and Cliff White, cut the first runs at Norquay and built the first lodge and ski jumps. Another son, Herb, was father to George Jr. โ which is how I ended up at the entrance to Georgeโs place in Banff, where heโs put together a kind of small museum of his familyโs things: skis, a backpack, a hockey stick, skates, old newspaper clippings, and books.
The old skis belonging to his dad are just shy of eight feet and, as he puts it, โweigh a ton.โ Herb ran with a crowd from the 100 block of Beaver and Muskrat Streets: his brother Ted, Austin Standish, Norman Knight, Ches Edwards, and his brother Rupe โ all keen to ski together in the early โ30s.
Georgeโs daughter Kelsie is currently digitizing old photos of her dad and uncles, and she backs up his stories: the old crew skied either shirtless or in full formal attire โ white shirt, tie, and โplus-foursโ โ breeches that fell four inches below the knee and were apparently four inches longer than traditional โknickerbockersโ (I had to look that up). Given his familyโs history, the idea that Norquay is Banffโs backyard has never rung truer.
โIt really is. It was the place to go, and over the years itโs turned into the family ski area. Even back when we were in the old lodge, all the locals were there.โ
George Jr. was born in 1942, a few years before the hillโs first chairlift. His favourite early memories of Norquay are of skiing gates with theย Banff Ski Runners and riding the Big Chair. He became an exceptional ski
racer and eventually trained with the Canadian national team when they were based in Nelson in the โ60s.
A serious ankle injury during downhill training in Kimberley ended his racing career but it didnโt stop him from making his way to Grenoble that winter to watch his teammates compete in the โ68 Winter Olympics. Among them were Scotty Henderson, Wayne Henderson, and Peter Duncan. But the highlight? Witnessing the Canadian flag rise up the pole for Nancy Greene as she accepted both gold and silver Olympic medals.
George has two daughters, both of whom learned to ski at Norquay. In recent years he suffered a stroke, but last year he returned to Norquay, his daughters leading the way. Back on the hill where he grew up, he found his legs again. Knowing he could do that โ ski just as well, maybe even better โ was all it took to make him feel like he was back.
Klara Huser is another local with deep ties to Norquay. Some of her favourite memories from working there say a lot: broomball games played between lift operators from the Big 3 โ Norquay, Sunshine, and Lake Louise. She always wore her toque on the ice, her long blonde hair tucked inside. She played physical โ held her ground and played like one of the guys. It wasnโt until an after-party at Lake Louise, toques off, that their opponents put it together. โNorquay had a ringer on their team,โ she tells me, grinning.
That comment alone should probably go down in Norquayโs history.
When she arrived in Banff in 1970, Klara already had years of experience at the Salmo Ski Hill, where her parents volunteered and helped run the operation: her dad handled mechanical work, her mom cooked in the lodge, and the kids ski-packed and did whatever needed doing โ which amounted to a lot.
She swore she would never work at a ski area because of all the unpaid work she had already put in as a kid. She ended up working at Norquay until 1994.
Itโs not a new story in Banff โ people who come for a season and end up staying. But given the era, the fact that she was a woman working in what was essentially a manโs world makes her quiet story worth telling.
Bill Heron, who owned Norquay when she arrived, didnโt know what he had โ but her skills slowly revealed themselves over the next 24 years.
Starting in the kitchen, Klara then moved to the kidsโ rope tow โ her favourite job of all โ where she made sure Norquayโs littlest skiers made it to the top.
โYou wouldnโt believe the number of little baby boyfriends I had at lunchtime. They would always bring me Oh Henry chocolate bars.โ
That was 1971, which, as far as I can tell, would have made her the first woman lift operator in Canada.
Klara could ski, she knew T-bars and rope tows, and she was strong from logging with her dad growing up โ not to mention holding her own with four brothers. Essentially, she fit right in, graduating from volunteer dishwasher โ when she first arrived to visit a friend โ to cook, lift operator, and eventually tour coordinator during the summer months, generating new revenue streams for the hill. She went on to run the ski shop, rental shop, and daycare before assuming an administrative role where she oversaw and created special events including Race for the Sun, the Veteransโ Race, Mountain Madness, and Iron Leg; even working alongside Jim โBuckyโ Buckingham marking expansion terrain as Mystic Ridge was developed and contributing ideas for new lodge expansion. In 1990, she became area manager โ the first woman ski area manager in Canada โ working under Art Heine for four years before eventually leaving the hill.
Howโs that for burying the lead.
Last year she celebrated her 75th birthday, and her friends threw a surprise party for her at the Legion in Banff.
โThere were employees who worked for me from when I first started. They were all there. I was just having a major heart attack โ so many people who worked with me on the lifts, in the ski shop, the daycare, the lodge, the officeโฆ everywhere.โ
As much as Klara deserves credit for her initiative, knowledge, and leadership during her time at Norquay, behind it all was a girl from Salmo who rose to the occasion. For Klara, Norquay was where she โgrew upโ.
I think we can fairly say, modern-day Norquay has Klaraโs (Oh Henry-covered) fingerprints all over it.
