 Poster: A snowHead
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Went to Whistler because Covid took out my planned back country trip.
You have to get up early to get fresh tracks there...
We did a few days, but it got more and more crowded as xmas approached, and the amount of queueing time you need to
put in to get fresh tracks seems out of proportion. A couple of days back the lines were truly insane, as they struggled to open
the upper mountain. Covid and the time of year were conspiring to funnel a lot of people into that one place. A perfect storm
of people. It's a bit of a bun fight at the moment.
I borrowed a new board, which rides this stuff better than the Dump Truck I'd brought (I brought a powder board, not a piste board... my mistake).
I don't want to give it back. In resort powder it rips, and it's surprisingly racy on the piste too.
They opened the Duffy Lake road, so a road trip somewhere else seemed like a good idea...
It's been 10 years since I was at Big White, so that seemed like a reasonable place to go:
They've built a lot of new accommodation, and very nice it is too. And just so much less zoo-like than Whistler at this time of year.
Instead of starting to queue at 06:00 in Whistler, this is 08:40 at Big White, and we've multiple runs of fresh tracks ahead of us:
They need a touch more snow to get the trees fully into condition, but they were good enough to ride and I managed to test the
Hometown Hero with a few bottomless sections... no complaints there, it works in full on powder as well as
resort "powder-roy" (powder on corduroy - when you can't see the base but can hear and feel it now and then).
But yeah, Big White's a family resort, so there's nothing worth riding here, no sir, nothing at all 
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Covid stuff. There are specific threads on that, but broadly people are careful, and you need to wear a mask correctly and present your vax certs if you intend to eat or drink and most other things. Whistlers gondolas feel a bit scary and obviously have more risk, although the windows are down and masks are enforced. Big White is all chairs and T-bars, and there aren't many people here, so there's no real issue if you're in a group at least. Even in remote towns where you can't really buy edible food everyone's taking precautions - it feels safer here than when I left the UK, although of course it may have tightened up there by now.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Seriously queues at 0600? Isn’t it still dark? When do lifts start running?
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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?
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Many years ago we queued at stupid o’clock for fresh tracks at Whistler. Up the mountain for early breakfast and then first onto the mountain. Was a great thing to do and we lucked out as it was a good 12” of fresh snow that night
Last edited by Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see? on Sat 25-12-21 10:15; edited 1 time in total
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Went to Big White a few years back had a lovely top floor apartment and really enjoyed the place beautiful snow
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Just did a course with someone who has spent two seasons teaching at Big White. It sounds a fabulous place to go and ski. Certainly adding it to my bucket list
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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BW is great, another one of the interior BC "family" resorts that is plenty fun regardless of the size or age of you or your group. True, the locals call it "Big White-out", and not without justification, as it is downwind from a huge lake. But you know what? So are most of the other ski areas in this region and they get fog too, just without the cute nickname. Excellent, often overlooked skiing here.
@Rob_Quads, sounds pretty smart to me. "We'll sleep tomorrow"!
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| Orange200 wrote: |
| Seriously queues at 0600? Isn’t it still dark? When do lifts start running? |
Sure, doesn't get light until around eight this time of year. The lift runs from 08:15, with day tickets available from 08:00.
You have to decide if you want to be on the first chair or not, at a holiday period. We were on that chair, got fresh tracks for maybe three runs. My mates have that stuff down.
Pro tip: work out which end they're going to release the bungie which closes the gates, so you can get through first.
Big White on the other hand.. after a decent breakfast we lapped the big Westridge runs numerous times in blower powder without hitting any line ups or really seeing anyone else most runs. Massive vertical, top to bottom runs without tracks or people. At xmas. And with interior snow. Yesterday more breakfast was consumed before we rode out with the resort safety manager to open up the "family" area called "Cliff" (laughs). There's not much of a rush when you're going to be winding up the ropes, but even so the summit T-bar was deserted. There were of course neither families nor "hard core" people. Not much visibility. The vis was truly awful, with a bit of freeze thrown into the big white out to add extra spice. I found that taking my hands out of my mitts and using their heat to melt the frozen fog off was quite effective - it was maybe minus 10 (got colder later). Whatever, we were dropping close to 60 degree steeps in sufficient powder you couldn't feel the bottom... all you needed to know was which way down was. Didn't see another soul and we just lapped it time after time.
That was a good test of the "Hometown Hero" in bottomless conditions... and it's fine. I'd worried that because it feels so racy on piste that it may have been hard to use in the steep and deep, but it's all good.
There's even a decent restaurant in the centre of Big White which wasn't there the last time I was
at Big White - the Black Diamond. The best hot chocolate outside of France.
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In terms of resorts and "family" versus hard core, I was sucked in by the marketing when I was younger, and avoided "family places" like Les Arcs for years because I was not looking for an easy ride. Eventually someone took me to meet Regis and I learned that the marketing is.... for tourists... and that so-called family resorts are usually way better for "the goods", and there's much less competition for them.
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| Quote: |
so-called family resorts are usually way better for "the goods", and there's much less competition for them.
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Depending on your definition of "goods".
Powder is just as aplenty at "family" resorts as in their "expert" oriented neighbors. But there's less competition at the family resort because the peeps aren't into the powdery snow or steep terrain. Whilst the crowd line up at the "expert" chair of the "expert" resorts.
That same logic can also be used wisely even at known expert mountains. The less "expert" runs in an expert resort will have less competition also. Last time I was at Whistler, I was lapping the power at a lower mountain chair while the crowd filled the lift corral at the upper mountain chair.
But if you're after "goods" of heart stopping steeps that only gets open with a big dump, you'll just have to wait there, crowd or not.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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@stuarth, I've made peace with myself.
I'm after powder. It's infrequent enough, I'd rather spend the time IN IT than standing in queues.
If I'm lucky enough to be at the right place at the right time, and steep lines are filled in, I'd go for it, as long as the line isn't insane.
Otherwise, I'm happier with 3 laps of "ordinary" powder rather than spending that time waiting on the queue to get 1 lap of the "legendary".
There're however, exceptions. One very long and snowy season, I had so much "ordinary" powder days, I decided I'd sacrifice 3 runs to line up in the long queue. Was happy I did that too. Also confirms both are equally worthwhile, when I'm in the right mood for.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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@stuarth, looks like you ski a lot of days. So you have the luxury to sample both (and other) variety of "powder skiing".
For many years, I only got to ski 10-15 days on real snow each year (bashing bumps in icy east coast man made not included). In those few days, my luck of them being powder days are few and far between. Wasting half a day standing in line for one "epic" run didn't feel like the best use of my infrequent powder days. (Whistler comes to mind, 3 lifts 45min line on each) That's when I employed the strategy of "Any powder run is better than standing in powder lines"
But now I'm skiing a whole lot more days. I start to feel ok to "waste" some of my days standing in line just to have one such big run.
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FAQ
