Rodney Touche

Long-time General Manager of the Lake Louise Ski Area (1972–1985), writer, and one of the key figures who shaped modern resort culture at Lake Louise in the 1970s and early 1980s.

Background: Born in London, England, Touche came from a prominent British family; his grandfather founded the Touche accounting firm (now Deloitte Touche); his father served as Deputy Speaker of the U.K. House of Commons. Both were baronetcies; Rodney joked he mainly put “Sir” on his Visa card for travel. He worked as a reporter for the London Evening Standard, married Canadian staff writer Ouida MacLellan, and in 1956 they emigrated to Canada. He joined the Financial Post in Toronto, then moved to Calgary in 1961 to write on the oil industry. The family skied regularly at Lake Louise through the 1960s, which deepened his connection to the hill.

General Manager (1972–1985): Touche stepped in just after the 1971 amalgamation of the Temple/Larch and Whitehorn sides into a single ski area. He worked closely with John Worrall, area manager. In 1978 he approved the Ski Friends volunteer guide program; proposed by Barb Spear and Patti Weightman; which grew from eight volunteers to more than 100 and became a defining guest-experience program. Staff from the era refer to the hill’s encampment as “Touche town.” In 1976 he and Charlie Locke commissioned Calgary artist Murray Hay to create the resort’s detailed piste map, launching Hay’s decades-long career producing iconic trail maps for Lake Louise and other Canadian resorts.

Brown Cows, Sacred Cows: After leaving the GM role, Touche wrote Brown Cows, Sacred Cows: A True Story of Lake Louise (1990). The book centres on Sir Norman Watson; the eccentric British skier who dreamed of a “St. Moritz of the Rockies,” shipped Brown Swiss cows to graze near Lake Louise, and sowed the seeds of lasting tension between environmentalists and developers. Touche had navigated those constraints for 13 years; his book is treated by insiders as a canonical account of the ski area’s transformation. It gave the Brown Cow run its name-story context.

Legacy: He bridged the early, improvised days and the modern integrated resort. Former colleagues described him as a superb writer and editor who taught them more about magazine and newspaper writing than anyone else, and whose “spirit will always be part of my Lake Louise skiing experience.” Rodney’s Ridge in the Back Bowls is named after him. He died in Calgary in 2017, aged 88. He and Ouida had travelled widely and spent winters on Mustique; he quoted Walter Savage Landor before his death: “I warmed both hands before the fire of life, / It sinks, and I am ready to depart.”