 Poster: A snowHead
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Big White 2022. I was here late 2021 because Covid cancelled other plans, but it's night and day in terms of services this year, versus last. All the restaurants are open, there are fireworks on the skating rink this evening, and everyone and his dog (picture below if I remember to post it) are out on the slopes in what is an early outing for the locals. Not many tourists about, but it's early days. There's more snow than last year, but the pistes are still in excellent condition. It's dumping again now, so we'll worry about the off piste stuff in due course, just getting back into it first.
De-icing and other shenanigans at LHR caused a couple of hours of tarmac sitting, but this time the air crew didn't run out of hours, and the flight made it into Vancouver only a bit late, and without losing any gear.
  
Mott 32 in Vancouver may not yet have a Michelin Star, but it's kind of run by snowboarders and it's the best Chinese food this decadent foodie has ever sampled. The enclosing hotel's also run by snowboarders, and is now thankfully free from wannabe fascist dictator branding, so maybe next time I'll check that out too.
A quick internal flight to Kelowna managed to get in ok, despite snow and some delay. The YVR baggage handlers broke into my board bag and located the gas canister in my air bag, which was legally mounted, but also wrapped carefully in a copy of the IATA regulations which explain why it's entirely legal hold baggage. The YVR domestic guys stole the cylinder anyway, and left a nice note telling me it was illegal. As usual, I dumped the bag tags when I recovered my bags; I didn't think to check inside before doing that, so I no longer had the receipts. However the baggage security guys had left a tag in the bag, so I could still easily report the loss, but next time... I shall keep the tags on until I've checked nothing's been stolen. AC accepted the loss report, and they're legally liable, irrespective of if they know the IATA rules. The cylinders are about £130 so that's no big deal, and they're available here, plus the ski patrol guys have a spare I can use ... but I need AC to fix it. I've made 17 flights mostly into or around BC with that cylinder, but on flight 18 it didn't make it. Ah well, AC'll pay, the only issue is how much it costs them.
I don't need the bag at resorts here anyway: it's all patrolled and controlled. Plus I'm riding with the snow safety manager, who obviously can't risk the embarrassment of actually being in a slide 
It was pretty laid back first thing, with the tourists not quite here in force.
My board's the small one, but size isn't everything, at least not in the way most people think.
This shot from the snow safety office caught my eye, as it shows "the cliff", which some one here last year was struggling with as a concept in what is marketed as a family resort. The shot shows the various places they bomb the cliff, and you can kind of see the cliff like bits if you look closely. We weren't into that today, but when we are... it'll be untracked.
Everything's not quite open yet, but we're expecting a few storms and it'll all be up and running by xmas. The on piste snow condition is excellent, and it's been snowing heavily since lunchtime, but visibility's good, not yet a white-out.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Gosh..given your stance on insurance and litigation I'm genuinely shocked you dumped the tags...why would you do that? I usually dump them when packing for the return.
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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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| Quote: |
This shot from the snow safety office caught my eye, as it shows "the cliff", which some one here last year was struggling with as a concept in what is marketed as a family resort.
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Most places have some steeps (except maybe Kimberly  ). The question is if you are going all the way to canada and want to ride big challenging terrain should you go to big white? Probably not there are better options e.g. kicking horse.
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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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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Air Canada are paying for a new carbon cylinder in full - excellent no-fuss customer service from them for a standard ticket. The catch is that you can't actually retail carbon cylinders here, apparently although they're IATA legal, the Canadians haven't certified them (like the US.. as perhaps one may expect). Someone gave me a metal cylinder and that'll work. I think I'll leave it here so I don't have to take the same risk again. To be clear, you can buy or rent metal cylinders here, just not carbon.
It was extremely cold yesterday - minus mid 20s, which kept most people away from the slopes. Today was warmer - minus 18 or so, and the visibility was better too. They just opened a few more runs, so we bagged fresh tracks down the middle of the piste for most of the morning. It's early season, so the off piste needs more to work, but that's typical.
Three of these guys are famous Canadian snowboarders.
There's been a few international racers around for the last few days, including a team from the UK. They're here for a para World Cup race, so there's been an interesting array of bionic hardware on show at breakfast. I didn't have my grown up camera, so just got one snap for the record. The race is essentially a banked slalom, run down a course which is usually open to the public.
The bionics affect the rider style a bit, but you'd probably not notice these guys were using technology unless you were really looking. The best bit about the course is that it's right in the middle of the resort, by the park. As they'd closed the course area off, there was quite a large slope of rather tasty untracked powder right by the side of it, which team "we used to be quite good at this s**t" happily shredded as the late afternoon light faded away.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Fascinating thread. Could you enlarge a bit on the technology being used by the para boarders, @phil_w?
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I like Big White went they’re back in January 2009 remember it was very cold but the snow was absolutely cracking our friends son is working there at the moment and he’s reporting it being very cold but loving the place.
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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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poo-poo the price on those tickets
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Those Big White ski tickets are a bit on the pricey side these days Can you get them cheaper in advance?
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Looks like if buying in advance online you can get a $93 ticket in advance, but that's only a weekday off-season ticket. No idea what the best deal will be on peak season day passes.
One of the reasons I suggest people not to do powder highway and general Canada road trips is it's super expensive when you are just buying day tickets everywhere. (Also insane driving times, hassle of moving about every other day, and rarely getting the best skiing at any resort - but that's a different discussion).
If you do want to do a N America road trip ikon or epic passes are the way to go. Build your trip around them and it can be very good value
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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We've had high pressure for a couple of days, storm's expected Friday. Yesterday (Wednesday) was cold - minus 32 or worse, so they had some hassles with some of the lifts. One of them... they couldn't get the backup engine to start, although the primary was fine... and at those temperatures you can see why that's a risk no one would take.
Almost no one was out, and we're old enough and smart enough not to need that. Sure, you can ride it, but you're going to need to stop pretty much every run, and some of the chair lift rides are going to be pretty brutal. We did other stuff. I think they do have a rule when it gets to about minus 40 when they shut it down, something like that, but most people will have given up voluntarily well before it's that cold. The snow, for what it's worth, is beautiful and consistent, as it never gets freeze/thaw. The evening was colder still.
It turns out that Canadians actually eat Poutine too; I'd previously assumed it was only tourists.
Her first record comes out in a week or so, and she rips too.
This morning it was a few degrees warmer; minus 25 to 28. So no significant lift problems, and quite a few people out. That is: you could expect to pass maybe two or three people per lap, obviously no line ups.
The cliff is still not quite ready for customers - it's early season.
We ripped top to bottom laps across the mountain in perfect groomed snow at about minus 25. The temperature keeps people away, so even the easier runs were possible at terminal velocity. They have those big runs with rollers in them, which are perfect for low level flight. Even the moguls were in perfect condition, big but with friendly loose snow on them.
You can still easily find powder here if you can be bothered to walk for it, but we don't need that, and hardpack is really good in these conditions. This was the first time I got my 144 Hometown Hero up to mach schnell and it didn't skip a beat, railing as hard as I cared to push it, 100% reliable. I need to push it even harder, but I'm really surprised how stable and responsive this is at high speed.
Friday brings a change in the weather and this place will soon be back to powder lines.
Warming stops are necessary at these temperatures.
This place is so different from in the middle of Covid, when there was no one here, but it all felt pretty scary too.
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Oh, there was a rescue overnight - a sledder with a broken leg was heli-evacuated, from an incident off the back of the resort here somewhere. It was midnight before they got her out, although they'd sheltered in a backcountry hut, or in those temperatures it could have worked out badly. For the record, that's a no cost rescue despite the machine having a fairly major round-trip: welcome to Canada.
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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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| achilles wrote: |
| .. Could you enlarge a bit on the technology being used by the para boarders... ? |
Sorry, I missed that. They have four categories of racing, with upper and lower body issues being classified as minor or major. So twk missing legs is major/lower, where as (say) a missing foot would be minor/lower. It's apparently a simplification. Technology wise... the arm bits don't look that cool, or at least I didn't see anything which looked partilarly high tech, but then it could always be wrapped. The legs were where the sexy stuff was - anodized metal (aluminium or titanium I suppose) structures reminiscent of mountain bike technology, with dampers which looked like MTB suspension units. I didn't photograph any (I'm not connected directly, thought it may be rude to ask and shoot, although that could be wrong of me). So these things had dampers and flexibility, and structures with bolts and lightweight metal structures. They had had some trouble with thermal issues when bolts were made from different material from the rest of the structure. There was a UK team with at least four blokes who had a mix of upper and lower body bionics. Some people have the bionics exposed, others covered under pants etc.
The riders I saw... well the legs definitely affect your riding style, so the technology isn't quite there yet.
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@phil_w, nice one. I have close friends that moved from the UK to Kelowna a couple of years ago, and the daily messages from them have been how cold it is this week!
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You know it makes sense.
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Yup, it's also cold up here near Valemont, same minus 40 mid week, a bit warmer now. Just had about 30cm and it's still falling heavily, the roads are a mess with lots of wrecks to be admired through the blizzard. Airports are still f-ed up pretty much from everywhere. The snow does look good though, for those who can get here.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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Damn missed you. I was there 16-30th Dec. I did have my snood on a few times. Will do a full write up later in the resort section but highlights for me were
The snow - it really is different here. Lots of fun with 3-6 inches most days.
Dizzys - I’d go here on a flight just to get boots fitted. I spent almost 4 hours getting them fitted - the staff are very impressive and I can wear the new boots all day.
It’s full of Aussies - about 75% of the staff are from there as the owners are Aussies and it leads to an amazing laid back and chilled vibe everywhere.
The wine shop in town.
Yes we went on a wine tour instead of skiing in -40! Although the shuttles heater was losing the battle against the ice spreading across the windscreen at -35
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Poster: A snowHead
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Great thread, looks like somewhere i'd like to ride with a chilled vibe.
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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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Looking forward to visiting Big White in March, our son has just started work there.
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FAQ
After two days of pottering about on those slopes we were advised that we'd need to leave the resort as the Trans Canada Highway back to Calgary was likely to be closed due to an imminent storm. So we went to Lake Louise instead. Ah...Kicking Horse indeed! 
Can you get them cheaper in advance? It's 10 years since we flew into Kelowna and did a road trip featuring cat skiing, Big White, Silver Star, Revelstoke, Crystal Mountain(?) and more. We made it up as we went along and just bought day tickets. Prices look a bit prohibitive for that now 
