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Big White, Sun Peaks – and SCGB reps

 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
Well, been back nearly two weeks now and recovered sufficiently from post-skiing depression to write a few words about our recent trip of a week to Big White followed by a week in Sun Peaks.

For the second time this year, it was just me & Mr C – we normally manage at least one trip with friends but it just didn’t work out this year. I was a bit apprehensive about this as Mr C is a much better skier than me & although he’s very good, skis with me and waits at appropriate points down the piste, I feel it must be a bit limiting for him (he does also go and do some ‘manly’ steep and fast skiing without me). So I thought, aha, BW & SP both have SCGB reps, perhaps we’ll hook up with them for some days whilst we’re there.

Big White: well what a fab place! After the first day skiing Mr C said, is this it? We’ll be bored before a week’s up. But we soon changed our minds – there’s so much to ski, bearing in mind there’s all the between-piste areas, and a great variety of skiing ranging from the tree skiing of the Black Forest area (which was really great) to the steeper longer pistes & bowl over at Gem Lake. And the resort really seems to have gone out of its way to provide facilities and attractions, from night-time skiing every night (and a long piste down from mid-mountain, top of the Bullet Express) to great facilities for kids and families, especially down in Happy Valley. Must be a great place to go as a family, different kids entertainments laid on every evening – and a gondola ride away from the village centre.

The Village Centre Mall (VCM) had a great atmosphere and was where everyone tends to meet up & have a hot chocolate (with marshmallows in – yummmmmm). The Telus e-loft on a little mazzanine floor had internet access and VERY comfy sofas for lounging on.

Snowshoe Sams – great place, didn’t have the famous gunbarrel coffee but saw it being prepared – wow!

Stayed in the White Crystal Inn which was fine, certainly good location, only complaint was a noisy fridge in our room turning itself on and off every 20 mins.

And finally – the snow. Absolutely fantastic, so light and fluffy even I could ski down a chopped-up run with no probs at all. Haven’t been anywhere else with snow like that. Will definately return.

Sun Peaks: this was our intended focus of the holiday, with Big White as an add-on but in the end we much preferred BW, much nicer villagey atmosphere & the quality of the snow, although good, was nowhere near as good as BW. Three different mountains, Tod – the original mountain and containing steeper runs, Sundance, gentler runs and Morrisey, a mixture of great-designed easy pistes, some with trees left in the middle for you to dodge round, and steep mogulled blacks/double blacks.

It was quite warm when we were there, to the extent of slushy bottoms of runs in the afternoon and hard icy runs in the morning.

Didn’t really much care for the fake Tirolean feel to the village and nowhere near as good facilites as BW. Also the ice hotel had failed to materialise (due to some personal problems of the Designer, apparently).

Stayed in the Delta Sun Peaks Resort – never stayed somewhere where our skis are valeted! Unloading our bags from the little shuttle bus between BW & SP, they started to unzip our ski bags to take our skis down to the ski room – Noooo, I managed to cry, with visions of all my dirty clothes packed round the skis spilling onto the road. The hotel was comfortable and we had a great room looking right out at eye level to a beginner piste going past.

Nancy Greene (Olympic gold medallist, '68?) is very much in evidence, being the driving force behind the development of the resort, and she does daily skiing tours round the mountain for anyone that wants to join her.

SCGB reps: well, having never really skied with them before, apart from Mr C for one day about 3 years ago, we thought we’d try hooking up with them for a bit. And what a great time we had, with John Jameson in BW and especially Stephen MacDonnell in Sun Peaks. Stephen really did make our holiday in SP very enjoyable, he was very conscientious, safety-minded of people skiing with him yet great fun to be with. We met so many nice people either through skiing with him or having a drink in the evening that it really did make our holiday very memorable. And if I ever thought being a SCGB rep was a holiday we changed our minds after seeing how hard he worked for little thanks (from some). He had quite a few different people skiing with him, 10 on the last day, and during the week we were there signed up at least 2 family & 1 single memberships. And it was good for me to ski with and be challenged by people better than I am, normally I pick all the easier routes to go down – didn’t have that option! Stephen really made me change my view of the SCGB & reps – and I’ve written to the SCGB to thank them. Very Happy

Moral of the story? If there’s a SCGB rep in the resort you’re going to, why not meet up with them for a ski even if you’re not a member. A great way to be shown round the resort and meet others.

I am now determined that next year’s mission is to improve my skiing – considering a Snoworks week as I know people have had good tuition with them. I seem to have just been stuck at the same depressingly poor level for the last few years.

Oh - and finally a word of thanks to Ski Independence. All the arrangements were great and although there was no rep in town, Emily over in Whistler kept in constant telephone contact with us - not that we needed it but was very good service I thought.

(If you've got this far, well done and sorry for the long post! Very Happy )
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 Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Both are brilliant resorts aren't they, been to both of them twice. We were very disappointed with the SCGB rep when we were at Sun Peaks (a few years ago), he was far too interested in the rich middle aged American women to be bothered with us.
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 Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Cathy Coins wrote:
I am now determined that next year’s mission is to improve my skiing – considering a Snoworks week as I know people have had good tuition with them.


Good choice. If you want to combine your tuition with a return trip to Canada, Snoworks teach one of their weeks in Fernie (in mid-Feb, avoiding half term crowds in Europe).
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Anniegirl, yes, I guess it is obviously very dependent on the personality of the rep. This was only Stephen's second time repping and he was keen and enthusiastic and really went out of his way to try to make people's holiday more enjoyable.
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 Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Cathy Coins, do Silver Star with BW next time. The new terrain this year has opened up a lot of options for the good-but-don't-want-to do-double-diamonds-all-day skier, and they've just announced another new chair for net year which will make lift access to the best powder area on the front side easier.
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Cathy Coins,

Interesting report. Was it DIY or a package ?

I have done Banff and Whistler. How do the two places compare with these ?

I never know how SCGB get reps into places. They had a rep in Utah in Olympic year. I never saw him though, as I was in SLC. The repping did not continue in the following year. I suspect the club just taps resorts up for freebies on the promise of bringing new business in; or runs lots of Club holidays out of the hotel used,like in Davos.
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 Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
rob@rar.org.uk, the only thing is reading their levels I probably come in as a cautious intermediate so need a course on one of their Easy Terrain weeks, which isn't Fernie. I can get down difficult reds/easy blacks but its not pretty & I would really like to get a bit of style into my skiing. I'm also limited by when I can take leave next year (can you believe my busiest time at work is mid-Feb through to June AND I've got jury service beg of Feb next year Evil or Very Mad ) So prob looking at a European week in Jan. But I've read your & others reports & they do have high recommendations.

Okanagan, just looked at Silver Star's website and they do have more do-able for me pistes than I had thought (don't-want-ever-to-do-double-diamond-skier wink ). But I think next year we might try a week in Banff (as long-term plan is to move to Canmore, really should suss it out a bit), hire a car and drive to Big White for a week. But fitting it in might be tricky re my post above.

Latchigo, package with Ski Independence but all perfectly do-able independently as all our transfers were on scheduled minibuses (which have to be booked in advance). Flew into Kelowna via Vancouver for Big White, transfer between Big White/Sun Peaks was 3 1/2 hours and flew out from Kamloops via Vancouver from Sun Peaks. Haven't been to Whistler but certainly compare very well with Banff, especially as they are both totally ski in-ski out resorts, which is nice. We would probably rather go back to Big White than Banff. I think with regard to Sun Peaks & reps it is probably down to Nancy Greene - she really is very keen on getting more British skiers over and used to put up the reps in her hotel for the whole period. Now that burden is split amongst the hotels in the resort and the main ones provide accommodation for 2 weeks each. There was also a Freshtracks holiday running whilst we were there (PE Rockies and Roll I think??) led by the Commodore (stand to attention by your skis! wink ) and they were staying at Nancy Greene's - very confusing at first having 2 SCGB jackets in town - followed by 6 days at Big White.
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