Big White looks like winter never left
Here’s the snow report for Big White: Fifteen centimetres of new snow overnight, which would be awesome if it wasn’t the MIDDLE OF JUNE!
The resort’s webcams depict a near-winter wonderland vista, with roofs in the Village Centre covered with snow and runs that appear to be in fine mid-season form for skiers and snowboarders.
“This is unprecedented,” resort vice-president Michael J. Ballingall said Tuesday. “It’s a problem and an inconvenience because we have a big mountain biking race, called the Okanagan Graveller on the weekend.
“We’re hoping most of the snow on the course will melt by then, and we’ve got excavators digging through snow to get ready, but people are going to be mountain biking beside snowdrifts, there’s no question about that,” Ballingall said.
The village centre at Big White has an elevation of 1,755 metres above sea level, well above the 1,600 metre mark to which the snow level dropped on Monday. There were some complaints from Big White residents about plows not getting out quickly enough to deal with the mid-June snowfall.
“This snow certainly woke everybody up,” he said. “We’ve never had this much snow still in the village in mid-June.”
June 30 is the official start of the summer mountain biking season at Big White. “We’re a little bit worried about opening day,” Ballingall said. “It really needs to get warmer.”
Based on current conditions at Big White, all the snow likely won’t be gone until mid to late July, Ballingall said.
As of Tuesday, Big White’s scheduled opening of Nov. 24 for skiing and snowboarding was still 163 days away.
It just feels closer.