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, ■ - ■ ■ ■■■S'; 4-1 *«0 ; wHi " ■ U ■ v • r MHttÉ- Ml ' À ' - ' JÊ k ,. •■;•' A ■ fc : livers For All Occasions From Ouri :,:vv ■: ., s ■ t«N.' LI nn kI r r\/r\ t ■ •« il Heart To Yours Hi Serving the Durham Region i 905^87-9844 1 K J |24-0438^ I I I I I ■c, Ontarliv^^^H Teleflora. THE CANADIAN STATESMAN ♦ DECEMBER 28,2005 ♦ PAGE 7 durhamregion.com A CLARINGTON community Once snow falls it's all down hill Established in 1936 skiers have flocked to the Kirby ski hills for decades BY JULIE CASHIN-OSTER Special to The Statesman KIRBY -- Kirby Ski Hill is well known in Clarington for a variety of reasons: its use for recreation and also for its history and contribution to the community. If you are new to Clarington, or live outside outside the area, you probably know it as the Oshawa Ski Club. : It may surprise you that the Oshawa Ski Club has been around since 1936 and has called Kirby its home since 1954. Before re-establishing itself in Kirby - at the time the site was known as Brimacombe's Hill - the club was located in Raglan. "Prior to becoming a ski hill, it was pasture land - looking at old pictures you see the hills were bare - no trees," said Dick Rutherford, retired manager. manager. "The tops were windswept - snow would disappear as fast as it came." In 1954 when the club made the final move volunteer members planted 10,000 seedling trees around the property. Over the years that number has multiplied. Once the site was discovered in the early 1940s an effort was made by the club to purchase the entire site. But part of it was sold to Jim Rutherford. Harry Gay owned about a third of the easterly property and eventually sold his portion to the club. Today the Oshawa Ski Club owns one-third of the property and the Rutherford's own the rest and lease it to the club. . The land surrounding the ski hill - and probably the ski hill itself - is rich in native history and evidence of native ' camps. Mr. Rutherford won't divulge the actual locations of his findings, however however he has found numerous arrowheads. An amjaing. piece--. on. display.-irttjhe Clarke' f&useurn, an Iroquois Lacrosse ball was found by Jim Rutherford. Pér- fectly round carved from stone. In its original state it would have been covered in leather. "There are a number of sites - one I found was their summer encampment. You can see charcoal in the ground - in a circle, where a fire would have been," he said. "We also found a village in the woods. You can ■ see where the posts would have been for a longhouse (Iroquois (Iroquois winter house)." , ■■ ; Mr. Rutherford has also found a stone that would have been used to grind com and. And lots of pottery pieces at the village village sites. In the beginning Jim Rutherford managed managed the ski hill operations. In May 1960 Ive Richards took over. Dick Rutherford was officially made manager in 1965. In 1955 the first rope tow was built. Another was built around 1958 with a total of six more being added. These rope tows where made of hemp rope and powered by an everyday modified automobile. Skiers would go through many pairs of gloves before the season was over. ; Canada's World Champion skier, Nancy Greene visited the club after her victory and is quoted as saying, "Oshawa was the only ski area in the world where you went up the hill faster than you could come down." In 1958 the first rental shop was run by Hans Eder who was an Olympic jumper. During his four-year stay at Kirby he built and started the jumping program. Mr. Eder and a bunch of kids, called the Night Riders, would stay at night and groom the hills. Before groomers the hills were side-stepped by people on skis. 'The only months I haven't skied are June, July and August. Once we had a freak snowstorm in October -- it was beautiful with the orange and red leaves on the trees.' -- Dick Rutherford "We had a really wet fall in 1959, they hill (ski jump) turned to mush which/ resulted in a mud slide. We reconstructed* the ski jump by first laying down Hydro poles strapped together with cables and wire, then piled dirt on top." j' 1 Before T-Bars were installed in J969 summers were spent trail grooming, rock picking and building tows.^After' 1969 summer chores included maintenance maintenance on the T-bars. The earliest Kirby has. beeiVopened was Nov. 28; Mr.' Rutherford guessing with rope tows only. And the latest it stayed open was April 12, which was seven years ago. "I skied down the Flyer on May 5 - skied almost the whole length, mind you it wasn't good skiing. The only months I haven't skied are June, July and August. Once we had a freak snowstorm in October October - it was beautiful with the orange and red leaves on the trees." Kirby Ski Hill was officially opened for the season 'on Dec. 17 -- and weather weather permitting won't close until spring. There are 22 trails listed on the Oshawa Ski Club website wWw.oshawaskiclubl com with degree of difficulty. Day skiing skiing is offered seven days a week from 9:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. and night skiing is offered Tuesday - Friday until 10 p.m. Î : or more information call the SNOW NE: 905-983-SNOW (7669), more information on trails, lessons and events go to the website or call MEMBER /HOT-LINE: 905-983-5983 or TOLL / FREE: 1-877-OSC-CLUB (1-877-672- 2582) or e : mail admin@oshawaskiclub. com. If you are driving out Oshawa Ski 4098 Regional Road 9 (Ganaraska Road), Orono. Take Hwy. 115/35 north and exit at Kirby. "It has been quite an experience managing managing the ski hill. It has ruled my life - no breaks. Don't know if I would do it again," said Mr. Rutherford. But he said with a smile: "We have employed a lot of people - farmers and students and we have been a big part of the community." Metroland Durham Region Media Group file photo Last winter a Men's Day fundraiser was held for Canadian Association of Disabled Skiers at the Oshawa Ski Club in Kirby. AI Jones gets the bindings bindings of his demo skis adjusted by Atomics' Rich Craig. Metroland Durham Region Media Group file photo Th| Oshawa Ski Club began in 1936 in Raglan, north of Oshawa. In 1954, they moved from their Raglan location to their current location at Brima- conbe's Hill in Kirby. I " ' ' - ' Reaching Your Goals Takes Careful Planning That's Why We're Here to Help. 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