Just steps from the Happy Valley Day Lodge, this ski home is located in the most sought-after location at Big White Ski Resort; just steps from the Mega Snow Coaster, outdoor skating rink, cross-country ski trails, restaurants and shops. If you are travelling with a group or family this is absolutely where you want to be staying at Big White Ski Resort this winter.

The Big White Gondola is just steps from SouthPoint #14, allowing you to ride to the Big White Village Centre (and Kids Centre) in style!
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Choose from 2 bedroom or 3 bedroom luxury townhomes overlooking the Village Ski Run, just 200 ft. from the Big White Gondola and Happy Valley Lodge for skating, the Mega Snow Coaster and cross-country ski trails!
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The Snow Ghost Express will be the longest six-passenger chair in Canada - 6190 feet, (1862 metres) long, and will whisk skiers and riders to the top in just under six minutes. Situated parallel to the current Ridge Rocket Express, the Snow Ghost will service Big White’s most popular runs and terrain. The two lifts combined will generate an uphill capacity of 5,400 skiers per hour (ten passengers every seven seconds) and increases the hourly lift capacity to an impressive 28,000 riders per hour. Big White’s lift inventory is one of the most modern, comfortable, and quickest in North America.

Skiers and riders will benefit tremendously from this resort improvement, especially during peak periods. “We are thrilled that so many skiers and riders from around the world have made Big White their destination of choice again this winter,” said Michael J. Ballingall, Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Big White Ski Resort. “The record breaking number of guests during our Christmas, Presidents Week and Spring Break periods clearly indicated that we had to expand our existing carrying capacity, especially around the Ridge base. The Snow Ghost Express will definitely minimize waiting times, and will make everyone feel like a local.” Construction of the Snow Ghost Express commenced on April 18th, 2006, a day after the resort closed for the season.

In addition to the Snow Ghost Express, Big White Ski Resort Ltd. will:

1) Upgrade the Paradise, Meadowlark, Serwa’s and Exhibition runs, allowing the resort to open earlier in the season, snow permitting.

2) Upgrade the Happy Valley beginner ski and snowboard area by installing a 400 foot Magic Carpet lift allowing for a comfortable, safe and enjoyable learning experience.

3) Complete the 70 million gallon reservoir known as Paul Lake. This $4M project will secure Big White’s water needs well into the future.

4) Continued summer grooming projects at Gem Lake, Black Forest, and in TELUS Park.

5) With the popularity of last year’s new Black Forest parking lot (600 car capacity), additional capacity will be added to the Black Forest Express quad, which will have its capacity increased by 34% in order to accommodate 2,400 skiers per hour.

For more information, contact: Michael J. Ballingall, Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing, Big White and Silver Star Resorts, (250)491-6150, mballingall@bigwhite.com. Steven Threndyle, Media Relations Officer, (250)764-2143, sthrendyle@bigwhite.com.

This year Silver Star and Big White dominated the awards in a number of areas. Awards listed below are excerpts direct from the pages of Ski Canada magazine and they include:

BIG WHITE

Best Place to Drop off the Kids and Get their Gear - Big White has now integrated its kids’ rental facility with the Kids Centre instruction area. Get the kids kitted out and ready for lessons in one easy step.

Best Party to get a Local’s Invite - The Shed Party at Big White is an annual invite-only shingdig that features Valdy, who’s a regular at the resort each winter.

Best Place to Celebrate Australia Day - Snowshoe Sam’s at Big White rocks with aussie aussie aussie/oy, oy, oy each January 26 as the Big White Aussie staff let down their hair - and dye it green and gold.

Best Powder - Big White

Best Grooming - Big White

Best Terrain Park (West) Best Place for an Old-fashioned Outdoor Hockey Game - Big White

Best Family Skiing - Big White

Best Place to Fly and Ski on the Same Day - Both WestJet and Air Canada offer daily service into Kelowna International Airport. The WestJet flights get in early enough to allow you to spend a half-day on Silver Star’s or Big White’s slopes to acclimatize to that champagne powder.

Best Place for Boys to Play with Heavy Machinery - At Big White last summer, more than 30,000 truckloads of fill were dumped onto 14 runs on Gem Lake. Apparently this makes for smooth runs - and happy Dumptruck Dans.

SILVER STAR

Best New Terrain - A gold medal for Silver Star’s new mostly intermediate Silver Woods area, which increases the Vance Creek side of the mountain by 54 per cent. More than 145 hectares of new terrain and 341 metres of vertical drop are serviced by a high-speed detachable quad. A neat nine new trails and gladed tree islands will provide fabulous powder on northeast facing slopes.

Best New Terrain Parks - Silver Star’s new TELUS Park dials up tricks for beginners and experts. First-timers can use fat boxes to learn to slide and mini-hits for catching their first air. Advanced riders will grind the long boxes and killer S-rails, and launch off big hits. There are also a halfpipe, aerial training site, race centre and a dual-mogul race course.

Best Powder - Silver Star

Best Bumps in the West - Putnam Creek at Silver Star

Best Grooming - Silver Star

Best Family Skiing - Silver Star

Best New Digs - Silver Star’s luxurious new Snowbird Lodge with great ski-in/ski-out convenience and loads of extras that include an in-house cinema.

Best Non-Grooming Use of a Snowcat - Take a historic snowcat on a gourmet dinner tour to Paradise Camp, Silver Star’s refurbished mountaintop dinner spot.

Best Program to Keep Your Kids Climbing the Walls - Both Silver Star and now Big White have climbing walls that are open at night.

Best Place to Fly and Ski on the Same Day - Both WestJet and Air Canada offer daily service into Kelowna International Airport. The WestJet flights get in early enough to allow you to spend a half-day on Silver Star’s or Big White’s slopes to acclimatize to that champagne powder.

Best Place for an Old-fashioned Outdoor Hockey Game - Silver Star Brewers Pond

The Ski Canada awards recognize the uniqueness of these two Okanagan resorts and emphasize the family fun they try to put into the sport. Silver Star and Big White have just completed an attendance breaking Christmas, New Year’s period and are continuously receiving fresh snowfalls of their world famous Okanagan champagne powder. As of this release at 10 am, January 7th, the current snowbase at Big White is 160cm and at Silver Star 149cm.

For more information on the above, contact Michael J. Ballingall, Senior Vice President, Sales and Marketing, Silver Star and Big White Resorts. (250) 765-3101 - e-mail: mballingall@bigwhite.com

KELOWNA, BC – At Big White and Silver Star resorts in BC’s Okanagan, it’s hard to figure out which is piling up faster

To recap the season thus far, in early November, Canada’s national Nordic team enjoyed the best early-season conditions in all of North America when they convened for their annual training camp at Silver Star. Beckie Scott, Canada’s newly-crowned gold medallist, raved about the conditions… Consistent early season snowfall allowed both Silver Star and Big White to open in time for the US Thanksgiving weekend.

The snow kept falling through December and bookings were very strong for the Christmas holiday period as Big White and Silver Star had superior conditions to any resorts in Western Canada or the Pacific Northwest. Saturday, December 18 marked the Grand Opening of TELUS Park, a state-of-the-art ski and snowboard park contains a 17-foot high Super Pipe, 12-foot high half-pipe, rail park/terrain garden, a skier/boarder cross course, and recreational racing gates serviced by its own lift and lighted for night-time sessions. Silver Star took delivery of its new BR 400 grooming machine and winch attachment, which allows steep, moguled expert slopes to be groomed to perfection. A major storm on Christmas and Boxing Day enabled Big White to open the new Cliff chairlift to access its double-black diamond runs.

January featured generally sunny skies and unseasonably warm temperatures, though both resorts fared much better than some of their counterparts through BC and Alberta. Both Silver Star and Big White stepped in to host major freestyle skiing and snowboard cross events that had to be moved from Lower Mainland resorts due to lack of snow. January 10th marked a huge turning point for the Okanagan resorts with the arrival of non-stop daily air service from Toronto on WestJet airlines. Flights were coordinated to allow skiers and snowboarders from Eastern markets to fly and ski on the same day!

The February issue of Ski Canada magazine’s annual Best of Skiing in Canada awards cited both resorts for major awards. Big White picked up kudos for Best New Lift (Cliff Chair), Best New Terrain Park, (TELUS Park), and Best New Intermediate Terrain (Gem Lake trails). Silver Star was cited for Best aerial view of the Monashee Mountains (from the big-air ramps at Silver Star’s new Airstyle park), Best Place to take Your Nordic Skiing Significant Other, and Best Place to Learn from the Pros. The article also stated that Silver Star’s Alder Point may be the best undiscovered ski run in Canada. Big White’s Sun Rype Bowl was named one of the world’s Top 84 Ski Runs by Great Britain’s Daily Mail skiing magazine, and garnered several “Perfect” awards from Ski Press magazine as well. Big White and Silver Star experienced record visits over the President’s Day week-long holiday, with vacationers enjoy fabulous ‘bluebird’ days. In early February, Silver Star announced (to much fanfare!) the construction of the new Silver Woods high-speed chairlift for next year, Phases 1 and 2 of the luxurious Snowbird Lodge accommodations, and a brand-new mountain bike park and trail system to be accessed via the Comet Express lift this summer. February set records for the most days of sunshine, and the snow base held up well at both resorts.

Miraculously in March, winter returned! The two-week Okanagan Spring Break (preceded by Ontario’s March Break) coincided with a series of storms that brought huge grins to powder seekers who had been thinking about mountain biking and golf. An excellent lineup of special events (both on the mountain and apres-ski) were put together by the Guest Services crew at both resorts during this period

Jim Loyd, Director of Sales for Big White and Silver Star, emphasizes that “our resorts fared much better than others in what was an unseasonably warm winter, especially in January and February. Our snow base never dropped below 165 centimetres at Big White, and skiers and snowboarders could enjoy over 90 runs. We hosted groups and ski clubs from places as far away as Nashville, Australia, the UK. The WestJet flights brought unprecedented numbers of skiers from Ontario out to our resorts. We had record skier-visits over three key holiday periods, Christmas, President’s Day, and Spring Break.”

For more information, please contact Michael Ballingall, Senior Vice President, Schumann Resorts Ltd. (Big White Ski Resort Ltd. and Silver Star Ski Resort Ltd) by phone at (250) 765-3101 or via e-mail at: mballingall@bigwhite.com.