ORNULF JOHNSEN INDUCTION INTO CANADIAN SKI HALL OF FAME

ORNULF JOHNSEN INDUCTION INTO CANADIAN SKI HALL OF FAME

The Canadian Ski Hall of Fame and Museum (CSHOFM) recently announced that Ornulf Johnsen, owner and Director of the Grouse Mountain Ski School from 1966 to 1987, will be inducted into the CSHOFM in Montreal on November 15, 2024.

Johnsen, who arrived from Norway in 1965, became Whistler Mountain’s first ski school director. Soon after he started the Grouse Mtn Ski School which became one of the largest in Canada. Under his leadership the school generated over $42million in revenues and was recognized as one of the top 10 in North America. He is one of the great pioneers of Canadian skiing.

He is best known for introducing Head-Way, a unique learn-to-ski system that attracted thousands of first time skiers onto the slopes. He led the way in marketing skiing in western Canada using attention grabbing ad campaigns that many still remember to this day.  Johnsen, a senior member of the Canadian Ski Instructors’ Alliance, always stayed true to his belief that everyone should have a chance to ski. He was a supporter of freestyle skiing, he co-founded the Canadian Professional Ski Schools Association and the Disabled Skiers Association of BC, and he developed ski programs for Vancouver schools which attracted thousands of students every winter and set the standard in the industry.

Wayne Wong, world champion freestyle skiing legend and Hall of Famer, remembers Johnsen as being “truly inspirational as I was growing up in Vancouver”. Renowned Whistler-ite and Hall of Fame member, Jim McConkey, described Johnsen as “a gentleman, a skier, an entrepreneur who created a skier base that had an effect on all other ski areas in BC”.

Over the years Johnsen trained and certified hundreds and hundreds of ski instructors to fill the demand of his ever-growing school. As a tribute to his mentorship and his induction to the CSHOFM, a reunion of Grouse instructors and staff who worked for Johnsen is being planned for April 11, 2025, at Grouse Mountain. Organizers Peter Gibson, Gerda Koch, and Rob Wallace, along with tremendous support from Michael Cameron, GM at Grouse Mountain, are expecting it to be a memorable event for all.

More than 1000 instructors worked at Grouse Mountain during the Johnsen years. The challenge is connecting with them. Gibson invites anyone who was a staff member, or knows of someone who was, to contact headwaygrouse2025@gmail.com or sign into Group Facebook page “Head-Way 2025”.