Big White: A Very Short Ski Season
Back in April, about ten days after we got back from our trip to Israel and Greece we headed to Big White for a few days. It became somewhat of a family tradition to spend Easter on Big White so we thought we’d keep it going even though our trip wasn’t exactly in Easter.
We found a reasonable Airbnb on the mountain, rented a car and packed all of our ski gear + two kids and went on the five plus hours drive towards Kelowna. Our timing to leave in the early afternoon after Neil’s daycare was good and both kids were sleeping in no time. We managed to push till Merritt although we were a bit worried we’d run out of gas and Kai was starting to be a bit cranky. In search of gas, we ended up in the center of Merritt by mistake, and not just the outskirts, and found a cute coffee shop “downtown”.
We still had more than two hours till we reached our destination and the conclusion was that Big White is far. We had to stop just before reaching Big White so I could feed Kai and then when he was still crying in the car Neil sang to him “The Wheels of the Bus” till he finally fell asleep, it was very sweet.
Our Big White apartment was very cozy and right on the mountain. We were all very tired and fell into a good night’s sleep. In the morning Neil and Gili went skiing first and I relaxed with Kai. Then it was my turn. It’s a bit embarrassing that my first day of skiing this season was in mid April. The last time I skied was exactly a year before, also on Big White, in the early stages of my pregnancy with Kai. I felt really good about my skiing abilities and felt I had everything under control. Little did I know that I’d be so sore in the next few days.
After the resort closed there were some activities for kids including a bouncy castle and some games. It was pretty awesome to be right on the mountain and to take our afternoon strolls in the snow. Neil of course insisted we’d go up and down the gondola a few times even though we didn’t really need to.
The next day I went skiing first and this time I was so sore the skiing was far less enjoyable. Gili reported that Neil improved drastically. I couldn’t see him skiing this time since I had to watch Kai. On that day we went to do some snow tubing – definitely a highlight for Neil and an energy rush for us all. It’s a lot faster and scarier than one would think, but Neil wanted to go many times even though he also admitted that it was a bit scary.
On the day we left we woke up to winter. There was at least 10 cm of fresh snow on the ground. Skiing was less fun with the low visibility I managed to get a bit lost. Neil almost didn’t want to go ‘because it was too cold’ but eventually was convinced by the promise of doing some jumps.
We were a bit worried about the drive back, given the winter conditions, but aside from seeing a bus that flipped over on the Big White Road and a short section on the 97c that one could barely see anything due heavy fog, the drive was uneventful. We managed to make it till Hope without stopping. In Hope it was pouring and we found an unimpressive Indian Restaurant. Usually we prefer the Greek place but we felt that after five weeks in Greece it would likely disappoint.
Finally we were back home at a very reasonable time. The next day Gili ran the Sun Run. He was a bit stiff from three days of skiing but still managed to be fast enough to avoid an unexpected hail storm in downtown Vancouver.
