Big White is a fantastic family friendly ski resort located in the interior of BC, close to Kelowna and the wine region of the Okanagan valley. The resort is spread over a large area, that is covered in the famous snow ghosts (spooky looking ice-encrusted trees.) There are a good variety of named runs with loads of easy options for newbies as well as more fun intermediate and advanced terrain for true ski-bunnies.

Big White is famous for terrible weather and white-out conditions. We got lucky and visited on a rare, bluebird weekend.

Big White Ski Resort overview

Big White has 5 alpine bowls spread over the largest mountain in the area. There are 119 ski runs – 19% are (green) easy, 57% are (blue) intermediate and 24% are (black diamond/double black diamond) challenging or extreme. There are also 25km of Nordic trails.

How to get to Big White:
It’s a quite a long drive from Vancouver, just over 5 hours. Once you reach Kelowna, it takes about an hour, via the Kelowna- Rock Creek Highway. The last bit of the drive is up Big White Road, which was in really good condition and well ploughed. If you are not staying the night, you can park on Happy Valley Parking Lot. There was plenty of room.
Facilities:
Big White has a village with plenty of restaurants, some shops as well as Inns and Lodges.
The village also has loads of fabulous ski-in ski-out cabins.
There are (of course) ski rentals and a ski school.
Ticket Prices:
It is cheapest to buy tickets online. If you buy 3 or 5 day Powder cards, it is $109 per day.
Peak season (Dec 16 – January 7 then February 17 – 25) $160
Non-Peak weekends $130
Non-Peak weekdays $109

My first impressions of Big White were great. We had arrived the previous evening after a wind storm that had blown down some trees onto the powerlines. This meant the entire resort had no electricity. But the lack of lights meant we were greeted by the most incredible view of the stars. So my first views of resort were early morning on a bluebird day.

Big White – Getting Started

We stayed in ski-in, ski-out accommodation. So as soon as we were ready to go, we could pop on our skis and go straight to the slopes. What we should have done, was ski down to the bottom of the hill, and taken the free Lara’s gondola up to the village. We didn’t realize that, so we all walked up the hill to the village to pick up tickets.

This area is well known for very cold temperatures, so the snow was more powdery than Whistler or Vancouver’s North Shore Mountains. The snow feels fantastic – it is such a pleasure to ski on!

Snow Ghosts

Have you ever heard of snow ghosts? Big White is well known for having cloudy or foggy weather. One really cool phenomenon of this kind of weather is when clouds float over snow, sometimes their water droplets stick to the snow and freeze (it’s called rimed crystals.)

This happens a lot near the top of the mountain, so some trees become completely encased with ice. They look really cool (heh!)

Ski Lifts

There are a whopping 12 lifts; 10 are chair lifts, plus there is a free gondola as well as a T-bar. In addition there are 4 magic carpets for new skiers/snowboarders. The most popular area of the ski resort is the Paradise Glades. There are two lifts right next to each other, so they can whisk 10 people up the mountain every few seconds.

How busy is it?

We visited Big White during peak season during a weekend at the end of January. It was a rare bluebird day after new snow, so it was busy. Early in the morning the Powder chair seemed to have the longest lines. Occasionally we needed to wait 10-15 mins. Mostly, although we heard lots of locals complain that it was crazily busy, as we are used to BC’s lower mainland, it did not seem too bad.

Weather at Big White

I think we may not have seen “normal” weather for Big White. It is known for being windy with white-out conditions. However, as we arrived right after a storm, we got to see incredible views under a bright blue sky. This lasted for half a day until the clouds rolled back in.

Best parts of Big White

We came to Big White with quite a large group. Some of us were newbie skiers/snowboarders, a couple of us are experts and the rest are happy on any groomed runs. With two days on the slopes, it only felt like we scratched the surface, but there were fantastic options for everyone.

I loved some of the little touches. For example Big White staff stand near the maps at the top of the chairlift each morning to give people advice and options about where they might like to ski. There are also free tours each morning at 10:15 from the village.

I really loved the variety of fun blue ski runs, especially in the Black Forest area. The Gem Lake side of the mountain was closed when we visited, so I’d like to go back and ski there as well.

If you are just starting to ski, there are good green runs from each lift as well. Basically you can go up on any lift, and there will always be an easy option.

What if you don’t want to ski?

We have a few friends that joined us who didn’t want to ski or snowboard. There were still fun things for them to do.

• Go ice skating near the Happy Valley Day Lodge
• Or tubing in the same area – they have 5 tubing lanes. It costs $29 for adults.
• There are snowshoe options in the Nordic area, or even more outside of the resort.

Accommodation

There are lots of options for places to stay in Big White. You can book in one of the hotels, lodges, or even in one of the fabulous vacation cabins. See full details of accommodation options here. We stayed in one of the cabins, right on the ski slopes.

One of the best parts of staying on the mountain is that you can ski right up to where you are staying.

Big White Dining Options

• There is a grocery store (the Market) in the village if you’d like to cook for yourself. We went shopping in Kelowna before driving up to the mountain so we had more choice.
• There are three food trucks; Burgers at the Black Forest Lodge, Beaver Tails at Gem Lake and Oh Natural Foods at the Ridge Day Lodge.
• Plenty of restaurants; Sasquatch sushi, Globe (cafe and tapas), Black Forest Day Lodge, Underground pizza, Spuds, 6° Bistro, Happy Valley Day Lodge, Moonlight Bistro, the Woods, Cantina del Centro (as well as the bars listed below.)
• Three Bars all in the main village; The Bullwheel, Fourth Ace and Snowshoe Sam’s.
• Two cafes; Clocktower Coffee and the Tea Bar Cafe

Plenty of the food options are available right on the slopes.

We mostly cooked for ourselves, so the only food we tried was at the Woods, located in the center of the village. Marc went for a normal ski-food, burger and chips. I opted for onion soup which was perfect – just what I fancied.

Big White Panoramas

I’ll finish the post with a few panoramas to show off the marvelous scenery and the ice-encrusted trees. Big White is gorgeous.

We all had a fantastic time at Big White. The powdery snow felt amazing, the ski-runs were fun and we loved the friendly atmosphere. What do you think? Do you like the idea of exploring this BC resort? If so, click on the pins below to save this for later. Or, if you’d like to see other options, I have the rest of my ski-related posts here.