The gossamer melody of Swiss folk music wafted through the Mount Norquay ski lodge, and the nature of the party was unmistakable. The sharp nose of Swiss cheese, suspenders, lederhosen and Eddie Hunter conversing with ghosts.
The Bruno Engler Memorial Veterans race closed out 50 years of ski friendships in suitable style and old Banff paid a fitting tribute to one of the longest running races in Canadian history.
Retired mountain guides, ski coaches and captains of Banff industry gathered for one final time on April 2 to pay tribute to a Banff ski culture they helped mould into the success it is today, while remembering their dear friend Bruno Engler.
Beginning 50 years ago on the Columbia glacier, the event celebrated friendships cemented on ski hills and chair lifts. The halls of Norquay’s ski lodge echoed with wild stories about old friends – some true, some not so true.
Leo Bechtold says he won the first Bruno Engler race. He met Engler while working at Monod Sports, and has many fond memories of those early days. Race entries were $2 each and Felicio Ticino sponsored the veterans’ races in those days.
“Every race, Bruno would forerun. He would yell and scream and yodel. You would here him ‘O sole mio.’ He was a great tenor,” Berchtold said.
He remembers skiing with Engler often (“I didn’t have to be scared of Bruno,” he said).
“I remember one year, we were going to ski on Victoria glacier. Before we got to the Plain of Six Glaciers, Bruno said we go to the Chateau Lake Louise and we drink. We were pretty tight going up the glacier. I had a tent. I don’t know where Bruno slept. When we got to the race, he was sober,” Berchtold said. “These races meant a lot to me over the years.”
Banff’s Rudy Gertsch dressed in Swiss attire for the 50th race, paying tribute to the race’s heritage.
“Bruno was really good at bringing everybody together. That was Bruno’s idea. The skiing was an excuse to have a party. No one was too worried about the clock,” Gertsch said.
Gertsch remembered the first Bruno Engler Cup, which was held on the Columbia glacier. A large crevasse popped up near the race course that year.
“Bruno was worried someone would fall in the crevasse. He had a sign that said don’t turn here,” Gertsch said. “He thought everyone should rope up for it, so we roped up on the course today.”
The race is about friendship, Gersch said, and always a chance to reconnect with old friends.
“For a few years I couldn’t come to the race, I was too busy guiding. But this year we said OK, we have to come to be here with good friends. Old friends.”
Maya Beck has been coming to the race since the mid-70s, and helped run the race for many years. She and Engler grew up in the same valley in Switzerland, and shared a common bond.
“He was like a second father to me,” Beck said.
She oversaw the move from Sunshine to Norquay, and helped revitalize it through a few lean years.
“The veterans race started to fade away. In the mid-‘80s, the race was doomed a little bit. I was coaching in those days with the Quickies,” Beck said. “Bruno was adamant this race had to be done first class. His dream was to have the party at the Banff Springs Hotel. The Banff Mountain Ski academy was founded, and I helped and got it going again. From then on, we had it at Norquay.”
Doug Robinson used to coach young skiers and run the Norquay ski area. His wife Carmen Robinson (the first Canadian woman to finish a marathon in Western Canada) used to always win the Bruno Engler races, while Doug ran the ski resort. His children would clean the lodge for a free lunch and were always told if they didn’t want to ski they’d be left in the lodge.
“We’ve been coming to Norquay since the kids were knee-high to a grasshopper – back in the ‘50s,” Robinson said. “That’s where I got into building lifts. Those lifts are all gone now. Guess I didn’t do a good job.”
He coached some of the best racers in the country at Norquay, placing several on the national team, but the family feel is something he’s glad the races and the hill hasn’t lost.
“The most credit I can give this mountain is you can drop them off and know they will be there when you came to pick them up at the end of the day. It was a safe hill,” Robinson said, although he remembers when an avalanche almost knocked out the lodge.
“Bruno was a very good friend. We went to all the summer races, at Akimna in Waterton, Victoria Glacier, Parker’s Ridge,” Robinson said. “We were both working in Banff. The first time I met him, he was a young fellow. I met him at Lake O’Hara … He was one of the best friends you ever had. He was full of stories. He would elaborate stories so everyone would listen to him.”
The stories grew larger as the evening went on, and talk of having yet another race began to formalize. But all of the participants were sure of one thing, the friendships and memories would continue.
