THESE HANDS WERE MADE FOR BUILDING — And build they did. Al Beaton,
82, spent many years of his life running the lifts and services at Grouse Mountain. In
fact, it was Beaton and 15 others who pooled their money from serving in WW Il to
build the first-ever chair lift at the North Vancouver tourist atiraction.

UFFICE to say Grouse Mountain staff

are hoping for a less eventful Grand

Opening of their new Chalet than the
day the first-ever chair iilt opened on the
North Vancouver mountain.

Not many people remember that rainy
and fogging day back in the winter of “48.
but Al Beaton sure does. He should. He was
the man who helped design, finance and
build the inaugural double chair-lift up the
mountain.

Al 82, Beaton is perhaps the preeminent
authority on Grouse Mountain. In addition
to helping to finance and run the aforemen-
tioned chair-lift, Beaton put in over 20 years
of service with Grouse Mountain. He left in
1968 10 become California’s chief inspector
of ski facilities.

But back to that soggy opening.

“We had invited about 100 dignitaries to
attend the opening of the lift... Captain
Cates, a minister from Victoria, the mayor,”
Beaton recalled earlier this week. shaking
his head and chuckling as the memories
came back. “They we're all dressed up.,
mink coats, suits that kind of thing.”

To get to the buse of the chairlift. the
group parked their cars at ihe top of
Lonsdale Avenue and walked across
Mosquito Creek to the loading point of the
chair.

“So they started up the mountain, and as
soon as we started loading them it began to
rain,” Beaton says with a roll of his eyes.
“And by the time they got to the village the
rain had turned to snow.”

Add to these conditions the fact that
water was spraying off the chairlift cable
onto the passengers below and you get an
idea of the mood the invited guests had
brewing when they hit the top.

“We gathered them all in the village inn
and I said ‘Pour them all a hot rum’, so all
these people are knocking back these hot
rums,” Beaton recalis. “Well, within an
hour-and-a-half we had ail these drunks, and
before you know it a couple of them get in
arguments, a couple of them get into fights
in the mud outside.”

But the worst, believe it or not was still to
come.

“Round about 5 p.m. everyone decides its
time to head down the mountain, so I started
loading them on the chair going down,”
Beaton says. “And two guys from Standard
Oil — Cll never forget ‘em — decided they
would try and see if they could stop the chair
when they unloaded.”

They did. By planting their feet as they
untoaded from the chair, the oilmen stripped
the cable right off the flywheel.

Beaton figures there were about 80 peo-
ple still on the chair when it came toa grind-
ing halt. Luckily ne one fell off. but the
problem of trying to get these rum-toting
dignitaries off the chairs still remained.

“| was at the top of the lift when it :
stopped, so I ran down the mountain under
the chair, reassuring people that everything
was okay.” Beaton says, admitting that at the
time he had no idea how he was going to get
the revelers back on terra firma. “Of course
most of the women had high heels on so you
can imagine what it was like trying to get J
them to walk down the mountain.”

The answer came to Beaton when he |
spotted the equipment used to build: the J
chair sitting at the bottom of the mountain.

“We put all that equipment back together }
in about two hours and got the chair running
again,” Beaton says with a laugh, adding
that despite the opening day mishap the
chair-lift was a flying success.

It was also Beaton’s start of a longtime
career with the mountain: “Nobody else
wanted to be the boss, and after opening day
I was selected unanimously.” oo!

Though he no longer works for Grou
Mountain Resorts, Beaton is considered a
honorary staff member. .

“He's really become a great friend of
mine and he’s probably up here twice a
month, telling me something I didn’t know
about the mountain,” says Grouse Mountain
president Stuart McLaughlin, who's family
bought the resort property in the 1970s...

Beaton who spends half the year at his
home in Norgate and the other half at his
home in California, is still called upon by:
California State transportation officials to
consult on ski facility matters. .