Wohoo at Big White - 8 Feb 2005

Big White got the nod.

I arrived at 8:30am expecting to find icy hard packed snow. To my surprise I found that there had been an “official” 3cm of snow overnight. Up the top this translated to about 10cm.

First tracks started in fifteen minutes so I needed to hustle.

View from the top of Big White. Its nick name is Big White Out. Every day had fog on the mountain somewhere.

I had to stash vast amounts of luggage, find a ticket and get onto the slopes. 15 minutes was a big ask. I did it in 60 and resigned my self to finding all the fresh snow being carved up. I was wrong. The dump had been unexpected and there was untracked powder everywhere. Light and fluffy, this is what I had come for. What a welcome to North American skiing!

The next week was an orgy of snowy exploration and partying. Big White is huge and a week isn’t nearly enough time to explore it all. To make your exploration more challenging there are celebrations every night for nearly anything.

One of my favourite areas is “The Cliff”. Most of it is double diamond scary with a long, soft run out down to the chair. The rest, well lets just say it is “steep”. Check out the photo. Yup, I did do it. It wasn’t pretty, but I did stay upright. The hardest bit is to drop into it over the lip.

A very steep entry into “The Cliff”. Those people are up there pumping up their courage. Some turn away.

There are a surprising amount of Aussies and Kiwis. 70% of the people working and playing on the mountain are from Oz. 70% - how did that happen? Ask for a Long Black in Vancouver and you got a blank stare, at Big White, no problem. Out of the remaining 30% about 15% are Kiwis. Where are all the Canadians? The Americans? The anyone else? Maybe it is all a cunning plot.

After six days of solid skiing I had run out of food. It was time to get off the hill and buy some more. Seemed like a good time to try another mountain. Big White still had good snow, so where else would measure up?

Cheers

Mark