Most of interior BC up to Revelstoke had another warmup with some rain last Friday. My host Fred Fairhall in Kelowna informed me that all of his buddies have sworn off skiing until it snows again. So we headed up to Big While at lunch time, got on the hill 12:45 and skied 3 hours.
The Okanagan ski areas did quite well for snow in December and most of January. Coverage is excellent, though Fred commented that the roadside snowbanks were 5 feet high a few weeks ago vs. a foot or two now. Big White only makes snow in its terrain park, but the groomed surfaces were like snowmaking dependent areas, with a uniformly firm subsurfaces, here the result of a few rain episodes in the past few weeks. Rain is usually rare at Big White due to village base elevation of 5,400 feet. Sort of like Mammoth, but we all know this season is an exceptional one for high rain/snow lines. The chronic cloudiness that normally preserves winter snow here keeps it firm now after the rain.
We parked at Happy Valley and headed up the short gondola that serves some of the newer lodging. We then rode Snow Ghost and skied Powder Keg over to the Powder chair. Fred at the top of Powder looking west.
We repeated these 2 lifts and pushed farther west toward Falcon. View of scattered trees near Falcon.
All of this was prime powder on my first visit in 1999, but we skied past the lift down Blue Sapphire to Gem Lake, the lowest point of Big White at 4,950 feet. Top of Gem Lake.
We returned via the Powder lift to the T-bar, which is the highest lift reaching 7,600 feet. I went through a gate to take a picture of the Cliff chair serving Big White's steepest runs.
There were zero people in that bowl or riding the lift.
I was able to get back in a lower gate and ski groomers down to the Bullet chair. Riding Bullet there is a good view of the extensive and night-lit terrain park.
After one more cruiser, I finished with the skiercross course in that park.
I skied 15,500 vertical, all groomers. My previous two visits here had excellent snow but limited visibility. I was able to see the layout better this time. Big White reminds me of Copper Mountain in terms of scale and terrain mix. The extensive on-site lodging is nearly all ski-in ski-out.
The Okanagan ski areas did quite well for snow in December and most of January. Coverage is excellent, though Fred commented that the roadside snowbanks were 5 feet high a few weeks ago vs. a foot or two now. Big White only makes snow in its terrain park, but the groomed surfaces were like snowmaking dependent areas, with a uniformly firm subsurfaces, here the result of a few rain episodes in the past few weeks. Rain is usually rare at Big White due to village base elevation of 5,400 feet. Sort of like Mammoth, but we all know this season is an exceptional one for high rain/snow lines. The chronic cloudiness that normally preserves winter snow here keeps it firm now after the rain.
We parked at Happy Valley and headed up the short gondola that serves some of the newer lodging. We then rode Snow Ghost and skied Powder Keg over to the Powder chair. Fred at the top of Powder looking west.
We repeated these 2 lifts and pushed farther west toward Falcon. View of scattered trees near Falcon.
All of this was prime powder on my first visit in 1999, but we skied past the lift down Blue Sapphire to Gem Lake, the lowest point of Big White at 4,950 feet. Top of Gem Lake.
We returned via the Powder lift to the T-bar, which is the highest lift reaching 7,600 feet. I went through a gate to take a picture of the Cliff chair serving Big White's steepest runs.
There were zero people in that bowl or riding the lift.
I was able to get back in a lower gate and ski groomers down to the Bullet chair. Riding Bullet there is a good view of the extensive and night-lit terrain park.
After one more cruiser, I finished with the skiercross course in that park.
I skied 15,500 vertical, all groomers. My previous two visits here had excellent snow but limited visibility. I was able to see the layout better this time. Big White reminds me of Copper Mountain in terms of scale and terrain mix. The extensive on-site lodging is nearly all ski-in ski-out.
