As has been the feature of most of my trips in the last year, this too was a work trip. Me and my colleague from office, Melanie were sent to the ski resort of Big White, which is around 60kms from Kelowna, to do some energy assessments for the businesses there. We had 2 days in hand. One day was for the assessments. Our boss gave us the other day to use as per our wish. It was sort of a gift from the company for a year of hard work. She booked us a quaint cottage in the village which was walking distance away from the main street.
Big White Resort is located on the Big White mountain which is the highest summit in the Okanagan highland (which spreads over across the border into USA). Its the third largest ski resort in British Columbia after Whistler Blackcomb near Vancouver and Sun Peaks near Kamloops. The mountain summit is at 2310 m with a vertical drop of 777 m and is serviced by 16 lifts. It has around 2700 sq. km skiing area. The village is at an incredible 1700 m.
This was my first time visiting a ski resort and I was super excited. We arrived at the the parking at the base of the resort around 10 am on a Wednesday. This area is called the Happy Valley Lodge. Today would be all work, so taking our gear, we made our way to the gondola which runs from the base to the village at the top. This is a short 5 min ride and the gondola system runs the entire day only stopping late in the night and resuming the next morning. The gondola dropped us into the village center which is a 2 level building which has shops, eateries and ticket booths for the various activities at the resort which include skiing, snowshoeing and other activities like ice climbing, depending on the conditions. Exiting from this building we got to work. It was a clear day with temperature around -15 deg Celsius. Rest of the day was spent on working. Late afternoon we made our way back to the car at the parking in happy valley lodge and drove to our accommodation for the next 2 nights. This was a pretty cottage in the style of European chalets. We met the owner who was an interesting character. In between some witty and hilarious remarks he gave us a tour of the place. Meanwhile another colleague from work, Shay joined us. So it was going to be the three of us. The chalet was quirky with lots of trinkets adorning the walls everywhere. There was a sort of a fire grenade from the early 1900s if I am correct and many other interesting stuff like old motor nameplates. One room was entirely covered by used Jack Daniel's bottles. After the owner left, we settled down in the common area for a good conversation. Outside it was anywhere between -15 deg to -20 deg Celsius.
Next day was for fun. Melanie and Shay both left for their skiing runs and I was left to myself. I got my camera and the recently bought go pro ready and went out to explore the village. As I soon found out there was not much to explore. The main area in the village is just a cluster of buildings. There are hotels, restaurants, a ski school and some skiing equipment shops. The areas beyond this core group has residential buildings and some hotels. The unique aspect of this village is that people can ski in between the buildings. There's no road here. If you book a stay somewhere here you can directly exit your building and start skiing. I took a long stroll around the buildings, taking pics and videos. Meanwhile it started to snow quite heavily. I had never seen such heavy snowing so it was quite an experience for me. But there was nothing more for me to do. Originally I had planned to do ice climbing here but to my dismay I found out that it was closed for the season. With nothing else to do I made way to a cozy cafe and had lunch. Soon Shay and Melanie, taking a break from their skiing, joined me. After this I went back to the cottage and they want back to skiing. Later in the night I went out for dinner. I had decided on a restaurant but before that I strolled through the entire village taking a video with my camera. After that was done, as I was entering the said restaurant a guy came up to me and asked what number this restaurant was. I was perplexed and told him I didn't understand. Having seen me earlier strolling around the village he thought that I was pub hopping. For someone who doesn't drink alcohol this sounded preposterous. I laughed and told him no I was just here for dinner. We stuck up a conversation and the opening part of this post happened. He came all the way from Winnipeg with his friends just for skiing in BC. We parted ways soon and I got my dinner and trudged back to the cottage. Rest of the evening was spent in the room at work as I still had some work to do.
The next day Shay was to leave at 10 am for Kelowna and I gladly joined her. Thus ended a short trip to Big White. My first to a ski resort.
A very nice start. Good write up.
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