John Planinsic

JOHN PLANINSIC

John or Hans was born in Villach, Austria where he grew up playing soccer, skiing, mountain climbing and ski jumping. He apprenticed as a shop keeper and then in sheet metal.
He arrived in Canada in 1951 and worked as a logger in Northern Ontario where winter temperatures dropped to -45 degrees. He told stories about being frozen in his boots.
With his best friends from Austria and Germany he drove to B.C. and working in the forestry industry all along the west coast gaining a reputation as a great and safe chocker man. He occasionally did some falling of really tall trees which caused him to wonder what he was doing as the tree swung about.
He eventually started a new trade in tool and die making working for Kenworth and then Freightliner.
He was a member of the Tyrol Ski and Mountain Club continuing his love of mountains. He was an avid skier - organizing the club races to officiating in FIS events at the World Cup level in various capacities. He looked after the small cabin on Mt. Seymour and helped with the Christmas party which was held on Mt Seymour for many years. He was part of building the Tyrol Lodge at Whistler and was Lodge Chairman for several years.
He met Ros in1964 and after teaching her to ski married her – I think there is a law against that! They moved to Australia but the mountains were in his blood and the highest mountain in Australia is only 7000Ft so they returned to B.C. Soon after they adopted their 2 sons – Dave and John.
The love of the outdoors led him to need to teach his sons skiing, soccer, fishing and camping.
At age 50 he started running and soon after that lead to marathons. When training he would leave home at 6am and run 20kms before breakfast. He gave our dog Gus a really good physique! He ran approx 18 marathons eventually cutting back to 10Kms. He ran in Vienna, Newcastle, Victoria and Vancouver.
He retired in 1992 at age 62 when Freightliner closed the production plant in Burnaby and moved to Ontario. In retirement he took up cooking in earnest becoming the cook and housekeeper while supporting Ros who was working full time. He continued to improve his wine making skills making a very palatable red and recently he has been encouraging Dave and John to take it up.
As John became less active with the # of his hip - getting away from the winter rain became his passion with swimming and walking on the beach in Maui and Newcastle, Australia every year.
After 21 years of prostate cancer he was forced to slow down this year when he could no longer ignore it. We are so sad to lose this inspiring individual but happy that he was able to see Dave and John settled in their professions, married and meet his grandchildren. And how he loved those children – when they were small he was very good at calming them by singing in German while cuddling them.We often wondered if the words were suitable for tender ears! We will miss him but are so happy that he has no more pain.