Big White has officially postponed its opening day by a week due to a lack of snowfall but skiers and boarders won’t have to wait long.
“I’ve been doing this since 1985 and I can tell you — nothing really unusual here,” said Michael Ballingall, Big White’s senior vice president.
“Last year we opened early, this year we’re going to open a little bit late,” he said. “But the snow always comes to the resorts of the Okanagan Valley, so we’re very confident that the skiers and snowboarders will be on the slopes very soon.”
The original opening day was Thursday, planned in conjunction with American Thanksgiving. Now the goal is Nov. 30, which still provides ample time for other high-traffic events.
Roughly 50 more centimetres of snow are needed for the runs to be ready. The village is currently listed at 37 cm, and there’s been 12 cm of new snow in the last seven days.
“We are at 94 per cent occupancy for Christmas and New Year’s and we know from the sales at the local ski and snowboard shops in the Okanagan Valley that there’s a very healthy population that has new gear. The ski swaps were also very good this year,” Ballingall said.
“So, the economy of skiing and snowboarding in the Central Okanagan, plus the non-stop flights – we’re going to have a very busy season for all the resorts across the Thompson-Okanagan valley.”
Sun Peakes opened earlier this week, with limited runs available. SilverStar has its nordic opening Nov. 24 and its alpine opening Nov. 3o, while Apex is expecting to open Dec. 9.
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