Passholder Profile: Doug Brubacher

Passholder Profile is a weekly series introducing our local passholders who share their favourite activities, inspiring stories, and why they visit us so often. 

How long have you been a passholder at the gondola?

My entire family have been annual passholders since the beginning. We purchased our first passes the day they became available before the gondola opened and have continually renewed them ever since.

What is your favourite time to visit the gondola?

Favourite time to visit - that’s easy! As early in the morning as possible. We enjoy the morning air, the mist though the trees, and the scenic views before the sun gets too high.

What is your favourite activity at the gondola?

Our morning walks along the trails, usually the Panorama trail but some of the other trails as well. I had the privilege of breaking trail on snowshoes after some of our nice snowfalls last winter. It doesn’t get much better than that. We are retired and want to stay active, and the gondola is a great place to achieve that.

What is the primary reason you bought an annual pass?

We bought annual passes because we wanted to be able to go up the gondola as often as we wanted, whenever we wanted. It's nice to be able to just go, without worrying about tickets, at a moments notice, even if it's just for a coffee on the deck some sunny morning or in the lodge during a rain storm.

Tell us about your best day at the gondola.

To answer this, I had to think back over the past 2.5 years you have been open, and at first I thought it was the very first time we rode up in a gondola car as the view opened up around us. But, for me, the absolute best day at the gondola was your 2nd anniversary celebration day where I was invited to perform some of my original music at your anniversary party. That was an honour for me and it was very special. It meant a lot to me. I’ve played my guitar in the lodge and on the deck a few times before then, and since then, but for me that was the best.

How often do you visit the gondola?

Well now, this is almost embarrassing. I visit almost every weekday and occasionally on the weekend if we are attending with friends or if there is something special going on. I’ve been up well over 525 times, my wife Sue well over 430 times and our 4-year old granddaughter Kyra has been up over 130 times, and she lives way out in Maple Ridge but she visits us a lot. Kyra loves the Alpine Alley trail. My 90+ year old dad who lives in Ontario has come out twice in the last year specifically to visit the gondola and has been up 19 times.

What is the best part about having an annual pass at the gondola?

The best part of having a annual pass is that we can go up on a regular basis, whether it's to do a hike or dinner or just a coffee. And it let's us see and visit with all the people we’ve gotten to know there including the wonderful staff, on a regular basis. I don’t want to sound like I’m doing a commercial but having a pass gets us 20% off merchandise in the gift shop and retail outlet and that’s where we do most of our Christmas shopping.