Big White

Visited Big White on a Sunday in mid-March. Snow conditions were good, not amazing, but nothing had dried up or was totally iced out. Big White sells itself as the #1 family ski destination in Canada and it certainly has the infrastructure for it. Lots of great, long full mountain green runs, a smart layout with all levels of runs off of almost all the lifts, lots of ski-in/ski-out homes for rent and what seems like enough other fun options for kids in the evening (I didn’t experience this first hand, but it looked like they were gearing up for family evening activities, etc.).

The ski rental services were particularly great, with the fancy 3D foot scanners and a computer model boot recommendation, which at least in my case was perfect…and I often have trouble getting the right boots for my average length/fat feet and apparently oddly shaped calf/heel.

A highlight is tree-skiing, which Big White has in abundance sprinkled throughout the mountain and even more on the “backside” (Gem Lake)…though I didn’t get there in my day (see below). Excellent grooming of most blues and all greens, good signposting, overall good (but not great) mountain layout that allows flexibility to get almost anywhere on the mountain with just 2 lift interchanges. There were a couple of blue runs that were ungroomed, but also unmarked as being not just ungroomed, but with pretty gnarly moguls (Corkscrew and either Whitetail or Redhawk, I forget which). I saw quite a number of families get serious buyers’ remorse on these runs. Other resorts will put up at least little sign at the top and given that Big White bills itself so loudly and proudly as family friendly, I expected more effort on this.

Crowds were not bad, but not nothing, either. 5-10min lines were not uncommon at the Bullet lift, 2-5min waits on the other lifts coming off the bottom of the mountain, but zero waits for Powder lift. This was despite all of Gem Lake being closed when I was there, which is another issue. It was a windy day and apparently the exposure of Gem Lake makes it and the Falcon lift too dicey to operate in winds above 20-30mph or so…or at least that’s what my app said the winds were and it was closed due to winds. That then shut off more than half of the advanced runs on the mountain and 20-25% of the overall terrain. So beware this can happen.

The plus of family friendliness is of course a double-edge sword if that’s not what you’re looking for. Certainly plenty of groups without kids were there, but it may have even been a minority.

And as anyone can see on a map, Big White has almost no double black terrain…again a plus for some, a minus for others.

Overall, I found Big White to be a great ski area and really great for families and mixed-level groups looking to at least ride up together on lifts if not more or less ski together. I did experience the “Big Whiteout” effect a bit when I was there, but given that the vast majority of the mountain is tree lined, this moniker felt overstated for its relevance. This is not Zermatt or the Vallee Blanche, and everything but the top 10-15% of the two main peaks is totally tree covered except for what has been cleared for the runs. I did not give it a perfect score, though, as it did feel a bit small-ish to me compared to other top class ski areas, and I did try and adjust my mental model here for the closing of Gem Lake on the day I was there.

Renters looking to take advantage of all the great ski-in/ski-out options should do good investigation, as some may look like they’re on a run, but really require lugging gear a block or two given the quirky layout around the myriad of housing units on the mountain.

Also, the road up to Big White from Kelowna is especially curvy and a bit beaten up. I would personally be very nervous doing that at night and/or in inclement weather.
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Very impressed with Big White. Good snow quality, efficient lift system and great variety of terrain, especially for beginners/intermediates.

Shame no dining options on mid or upper mountain, to enjoy the wonderful views on a sunny day.

Even Saturday lift lines on a powder day were acceptable.

Some chairs e.g. Black Forest several runs are left ungroomed during weekdays, some runs off Snow Ghost upper half groomed, lower not which is real pain.

Some green runs do have much steeper sections, especially in comparison to an Australian, NZ or a Japanese green run. Likewise some blue runs with continuous steeper pitches (Exhibition, Powder Gulch) are borderline black runs. Bring back the blue/black ratings please!

Food and dining options expensive but of good quality. Would love to return
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Big White was such a great choice in 2022 that I've already booked for 2023.

Top of the list was the quality of the snow! The powder was so light and dry that the skiing was a silent glide down the slopes a lot of the times. It was also a lot of fun turning off the runs and shooting through the trees.

I found the lift pass very expensive compared to other places I've skiied but it is a large resort and I never waited more than 5 - 10 minutes at most for a chair. A lot of times, it was ski right onto a chair! So... it was expensive but worth it.

A lot of accommodations are ski in/out making the start and end of the day easy. The Big White online booking service is not very good. It looked like a room/condo could be found but I could not find a “Book Now” function. Fortunately, there are plenty of places shown on VRBO, Airbnb and Ownerdirect type websites where condos and cabins can be easily booked.

The central ski village is well stocked with options and it looked like they have a world-class childminding service. There is a very well stocked grocery and wine/liquor store that, includes a deli and pizza service, so stocking the condo was easy. There are also plenty of restaurants with a good choice of food types.

The only disappointing part of Big White, compared to places like St. Anton, is I missed places up on the mountain to stop for lunch and a beer. On a relaxing ski day, I enjoy some chill time up on the slopes relaxing with a beer in the sun.

All summed up, I think I prefer Big White to St. Anton and will return.
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Great mountain with something for everyone. Could be some more challenging terrain but the cliff chair and Easter chutes area still has some great stuff. Snow is generally nice even if there isn't pow. When a storm comes in it can be one of the best pow days of your life. Can be busy on the weekend but the lifts are well planned and layed out to manage the crowds,
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Well, it's 3 years out of 4. The snow was WOW. While those at Whistler could hardly ski, we at Big White were waist deep in the stuff. So much snow that on some days it was just too much for these poor legs to handle.

At the end of our week we still love the place. The Bull Wheel was not as good this year in terms of food, but the black diamond grill was better.

We stayed over bear the black forest and it is true ski in ski out. The kids were in school again. One comment here. Race school is not really race school. So That would be the one thing I would not recommend. My son still loved it though and Guy did give some really good tips.

For us Aussies you really need to watch some of the greens here. Highway 33 is steeper than most blue runs in places but is really wide which makes it green.

The people are really helpful, we just love the place. The only issue, The white out is real, and it does make things very hard at times. This year that was around lot . We did not see the blue sky.

So, after 3 years and a visit to whistler would we return. Absolutely. The kids just love the place.

Make sure you get a Beaver Tail. All they need now is Cows Ice cream and you have the complete Canadian Experience.
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We are a family of 3: 2 skiers and 1 boarder. We have skied NZ and Australia but this was our first trip to Canadia. We were amazed at the powder. We had never experienced snow like that before. It snowed most nights leaving a few cm of powder on the groomed runs - beautiful.

We had 3 days of excellent visibility out of 9. 2 were blue skys and sunshine. Some of the time the vis was bad, especially higher up the mountain. You just have to take to the trees, if you have the skills. However the snow was excellent for the entire trip. Some say that you can't have fresh snow every day and no fog. Keep in mind that we went in January. We heard that February and March have more sunshine days. We are thinking if we return it will be in one of those two months.

We stayed at Sundance which was excellent and had great ski in ski out access. The staff at the front desk went beyond expectations. The complimentary shuttle bus run by Sundance was a great luxury. Highly recommended.

Big White staff were between good and excellent. Our best experience with staff were at Sundance and gear rental.

90% of the time there were no lift lineups. However on weekends it did get busier. Sometimes we had to wait 15 minutes for a lift.

We also thought that green runs at BW had steep sections that would have made it a blue in Aus, however the landing is softer at BW.

Stay 2 + weeks if you can and buy an early bird season pass. As well as being cheaper you get lots of discounts for other things on mountain such as lessons. It also means that if you get a foggy day you can take a rest day and do other things such as walking through the snow-covered forest.
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Visited in Feb 2018, coming from NZ it was awesome to be staying a stones throw from the lifts, up in the action ,
our trip was for 15 nights, we had about 7 sunny days and 7 or 8 snow days with a couple of mornings offering some epic knee deep super light POW,
With our two young daughters with us 6.5 and 4.5 years old big white seemed to tick all the needs when reading up about it.
Big white far excessed our hopes and we've booked to go back in feb 2020
The ski school drop off time of 8;30Am allowed us to love ya and leave them to be on the first lifts to catch the freshies , 3 hours of bliss until 12pm pick up, with the super fast lifts my wife and I clocked up way more ski time than what you can do in NZ ,
As for the ski instructors/ school, they were awesome, both our girls improved so fast, each afternoon was spent with them leading US around the main ski basin area, bullet and Black Forest chairs.
As for crowds , the longest wait for the chair was on the Sunday morning of family weekend ( I think ) 5 minutes, the week days felt like we were on a private ski hill no matter where you were on the mountain.
I was still riding clean tracks on the pow mornings at 11 am, going a little into the trees and having a blast,
I read about big white being famous for white outs, very true as being at the very top in the white is horrible , ( plus side was no one around )And we got the famous big white OUT, I managed to get some good bearings on the clear days and when it was white at the tops no one was up there , the trees just below top of the lifts gave great vis to scoot around with some epic terrain off the powder chair.
Black Forest chair also provided great vis when everywhere else on the hill was white out, but everyone kinda masses there due to this, again 1 or two minutes in a lift line is very minamal
We stay at grizzly lodge , two bedroom with hot tub, EPIC, room 107 I think, WE cooked our own meals and took advantage of the food / groceries deliver service and ordered all our food for our stay, which was delivered to our room before our arrival ,
epic views out over the Valley, only down side was a walk up or down the road to the lifts, Base area, mellow if by your self but with our two girls and not much road due the heavy snow build up's it was a bit dicey , NOT ski in or ski out, as advertised, we are staying at another location next time but I would definitly stay there again.
I rated big white for the easiness of getting around, with kids, the lack of crowds, the snow, the accomm
staff / ski school ,
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loved every second
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Big white was good but you could never see which was a shame
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We have just made our second visit to Big White in 2 years. We are a family of 4. One of the risks you take on returning to the same place again after such a great time the proceeding year is will you enjoy it as much.

In short, all family members enjoyed it more, much more. This is a very special place. We love Banff, we also went to sunshine and Lake Louise on our trip, but, from a skiing perspective this place is better unless you are a Revellstoke or kicking horse Junky where its hard to ski if you are not super good.

We stayed at Copper Kettle which was great and ski in ski out. Its a short walk to the village (less then 10 minutes) There is a bus service or the staff will run you home if required and lazy.

It snowed 8 days straight there, temperatures were -2 to -8. Dizzy did a fantastic job again this year with my wife and doubled here skiing ability with a change of skis, which were try before you buy.

In terms of night life and food there is far more to do and eat at night over Silver star, A couple of notable places, "the Kettle", "6 Degrees" and the Black Diamond Grill. All great food and wine from local regions. All have food for kids. The Bull Wheel is a great pub.

The ski school for the kids is still great. Did I mention no lift wait time?

Will we be back yes, and if we win the lottery, we will buy a place there...

For the Aussies the 3 resorts in the Area are all good. You can start some healthy debate comparing them. Our views are: Silverstar is quieter, Sun Peaks is more spread out, Big White we think offers a balance. All, unlike whistler where you can start with rain, freezing rain, mushy snow and powder ontop, making for icy terrain are just pure powder all the way.

We just love it.

August.
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