Feb 22-25, 2006, Big White BC

Took the family. I've been to Big White several times over the past few years for the kid's mid-winter break. This was the best trip ever. Weds and Thurs both had good dumps of new snow in the morning and through the day. There was fresh snow to be had all day. Even though it snowed all day those day's the clouds didn't descend -- so no "Big White-out". Friday and Sat didn't have much fresh snow -- but where pretty clear -- Saturday morning I enjoyed the clearest views I've ever had from top of the Gem Lake express. Very short lift lines this year too -- I guess avoiding President's day weekend proper helped with that.<br><br>This the was the first season I've been there since the "Cliff chair" was opened. What an improvement! Previously it took two chair rides and ride on the T-bar for each run down Big White's scant double black runs. The new chair makes it dead easy to access the "Cliff" run, so it was a bit tracked out as a result. However the "Parachute Bowl" still requires a 50ft of uphill hiking to access and a tiny drop to enter -- so it stayed fairly fresh all day.<br><br>Looking at how many condo's and houses they have built over last couple of year's I'm suprised the lift lines were as light as they were -- perhaps wicked cold temps of a couple weeks ago ( -10 F ) scared people away. Temps while I was there were in the teens F.<br><br>Travel time via I-90 Snoqualmie Pass + US-97 Blewett Pass Osoyoos , Kelowna -- HWY-33 was just a bit over 8 hours including stops for gas and food. Less traffic and easier driving that the Sumas, Hope, Meritt, Kelowna route I've used before -- dispite being a few miles longer.<br><br>

I just completed 6 days of skiing at Big White. Wednesday was great, Thursday the snow was a bit heavier but Friday was again very dry like Wednesday obviously from the temp hitting about 15 deg during the night.<br>I did start to wonder about the accuracy of how they measure and report snowfall on their website. They never reported much more than a couple inches (not cm) within a 24 hour period the last 3 days of the week however I was skiing at least 5 to 6 inches of fresh pow each day for three days straight.<br><br>Great place for a family ski trip....this was year two.