I flew to Vancouver Feb. 16, as I will be returning home from there after spending 5 days at Whistler with Liz March 3-7. I drove to Kelowna and spent the night with a friend. He said Big White hadn’t been very good lately but 3 inches of overnight heavy snow resurfaced the mountain nicely above the village. I parked at the Black Forest base and warmed up on a few cruisers, moving in turn to the Ridge Rocket, Snow Ghost and Bullet chairs. Morning weather was decent, high overcast with sunny breaks. Upper mountain viewed from top of Ridge Rocket, with snow ghost trees.
From the top of Bullet there was a profile view of the Cliff.
Seeing the skiers there, I suspected it was going to be good.
View down from Bullet:
I took the T-bar up and skied skier’s right of the lift on the Cliff 5 times. Riding the lift during a sunny break:
Lots of skiers enjoying the smooth snow:
At 11:30 it started to cloud over and I was about to move on when I noticed two patrollers ski cutting Parachute Bowl skier’s left of the lift.
They dropped the rope under the lift so I hung around for 3 more runs on the newly opened terrain. The visibility deteriorated but it didn’t matter as the snow was so smooth and consistent.
I skied 13,700 vertical but had to leave at 12:20 for the 2.5 hour drive to the Mustang pickup. Silver Star is an hour closer, but with the rain/snow line being 5,000 feet and Silver Star’s advanced backside dropping down to 3,800 I knew Big White was the better call.
From the top of Bullet there was a profile view of the Cliff.
Seeing the skiers there, I suspected it was going to be good.
View down from Bullet:
I took the T-bar up and skied skier’s right of the lift on the Cliff 5 times. Riding the lift during a sunny break:
Lots of skiers enjoying the smooth snow:
At 11:30 it started to cloud over and I was about to move on when I noticed two patrollers ski cutting Parachute Bowl skier’s left of the lift.
They dropped the rope under the lift so I hung around for 3 more runs on the newly opened terrain. The visibility deteriorated but it didn’t matter as the snow was so smooth and consistent.
I skied 13,700 vertical but had to leave at 12:20 for the 2.5 hour drive to the Mustang pickup. Silver Star is an hour closer, but with the rain/snow line being 5,000 feet and Silver Star’s advanced backside dropping down to 3,800 I knew Big White was the better call.
