December 16, 2013, Big White, B.C.

The snowpack and weather sounded great for the Okanogan so we packed the van and planned for a short week of skiing in BC.  It took about 7 hours to get to Big White with a dinner stop in Kelowna.  We parked in the Happy Valley Lodge parking area which is at 5800’.  The snowpack is skiable from 7600’ to the base area.   We parked next to a van that had 3 feet of snow on its roof from the last big snow storm.  We walked about 50 feet to the gondola.  There is also a large skating rink for hockey near the Lodge.  A Zambonee (sp?) machine was cleaning the ice rink.

We had 2 for 1 lift tickets from the Warren Miller show.  Three express chairs were running: Ridge Rocket, Bullet and Black Forest.  Powder Triple and Alpine T-Bar were also running. There were 44 groomed runs plus many more that were open but variable. We have not been here in 4 years and the number of ski condos is unbelievable.  The Christmas holidays will be crazy here. We skied the groomers which were in great shape.  Also the trees still held their powder and there was skiable powder terrain in the trees (shallow but very nice). 

This was our first day of the season and after 4 hours of cruising we were done.  A few of the expert trails were groomed, but we stayed away from them (for now!).  Most expert trails were “open” but required “rock skis”.  It was a cold sunny day with high clouds and good visibility and was a great way to start the season.

Thanks for the report. Are you planning to tour the other areas up there on the WM deal? Keep us posted. When I retire, I'm going to do exactly what you do, except I'll be the one sleeping in the back of a Subaru! I thought Big White had some excellent terrain plus good side-country hiking options too (probably too early for that).
Art

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Looking forward to hearing more!