Janez (Johnny) Pristov

Memorial Services were held Sunday, January 17, 2010 in Kika's Café, Norquay Ski Lodge.

Remembering

Johnny ( Janez) Pristov,

A tribute by Eddie Hunter

In an interview with local historian Jon Whyte, over twenty years ago, John Pristov told him his run, with three other teenagers, for the Austrian border from Slovenia was the action of a young person wanting to see the world, nothing political. He spent a couple of years on a farm in Austria before coming to Canada.

Being a mountain person, born in Kranjska Gora, Yugoslavia, his early years in eastern Canada could have been a mistake, but it did give him time to learn English. When he arrived in Banff in 1957 he was hired by Parks Canada for a position on the Norquay ski patrol. He already had some skiing skills as he had started skiing in the Julian Alps when he was three years old, but his first love was ski jumping. His downhill skiing was to be improved by the people he worked with, John Wackerle, Bob Meggs, and Jim Davies. The Banff scene matched his outgoing personality. In time Alpine specialist Walter Perren placed Pristov in charge of the Norquay Ski Patrol. He then took the exams of the Canadian Instructors Ski Alliance after which he joined Heinz Vivian's ski school at Mt. Norquay. Following that he started his own ski school first from the Timberline Hotel and then the Voyager Hotel.

John Pristov's summer work dealt with stone masonry, which he had learned as an apprentice in Slovenia. His talent in this area was a natural for the Park as Banff is noted for it's stone work .

John Pristov, made many trips back to his native land to see his mother, but he always called Banff his home.

His skiing personality was given freely, especially to the ladies. John ran his ski school during a period when an individual could run his own school, unlike today's herd ski schools. The personality and the skill of the individual was the main reason for success or failure; John was a success.

In his later years he experienced a head injury which robbed him of cherished time on his skis. What he kept were glowing memories of a life in Banff and happy times he shared with so many visitors on a ski hill.

It is a nice memory of John 'Janez' Pristov, to think of his hours giving ski lessons and personalized friendship in the winter and then to know that his stone work guides summer visitors to a safer passage while others see his fine work while visiting places of worship.

Services provided by Russ Reynolds and Bow River Funeral Service.