5K Cones of Candy Floss, 7K Pom Pom Toques, & Over 50K Cups of Coffee
While it’s hard to say goodbye to the ski season with an epic amount of snow (27 new centimetres last night!) still gracing the slopes, Big White Ski Resort is officially closed for the 2022/2023 season, and it’s time to start digging out for a summer full of biking, hiking, and music festivals!
“We’ve had one of the best seasons in our 59-year history, and it really does feel like tourism in the Central Okanagan and beyond is on the right track for recovery after the pandemic,” says Michael J. Ballingall, Senior Vice President at Big White Ski Resort Ltd. “Tens of thousands of skier visits from all over the world, and hundreds of thousands of skier visits from our local area, enjoyed 803 centimetres of Okanagan Champagne Powder throughout the season. While closing with a 267 cm snow base is hard to do, we have exciting projects to start on for summer that just can’t wait.”
While the amount of snowfall the resort saw this season is impressive enough, we’ve rounded up some other hospitality numbers to show you just how much fun everyone had.
The Big White Snow Patrol team triggered 129 avalanches with explosives. To keep you posted on what was happening on-mountain through our social feeds, our in-house photographer, Andrew Jay, will close out the season with over 80,000 photos in the bank. (We’ve selected a number of our favourites, here!). Our events team served up nearly 5,000 cones of cotton candy to over 7,000 eager kids on Saturday at our weekly Carnival night. Over 7,000 new heads donned the famous Big White pom-pom toque, with over 100,000 now sold around the world.
Big White’s food and beverage team served up 35,808 pounds of french fries, 49,971 shots of espresso (2,122 pounds of beans) and 17,263 liters of hot chocolate. Snowshoe Sam's cooked over 7,500 Smash Burgers!
Visitors enjoyed over 125,000 tube rides, nearly 7,500 people went for a rip at night, and our brand new POWder Card made it into the hands of over 3,000 people.
Our outdoor operations team parked just under 130,000 cars, and our airport shuttle transported nearly 21,000 people to and from the resort, with the largest day being Saturday, February 25 with 404 people.
The Kids’ Centre, back for the first season since 2020, served up over 6,000 juice boxes and 1,300 litres of hot chocolate. Nearly 400 kids were dropped off at the Tot Town Daycare, and our Ski & Board School gave out around 2,500 private lessons and over 25,000 group lessons. Our Snow Hosts conducted over 500 free on-mountain tours with over 1,200 guests.
This season, we saw the return of our weekly events schedule, including Carnival Night, Bingo Night and Trivia Night. We also saw the return of Big Reds – with both nights selling out – and night skiing.
All 873 Big White team members want to send out a huge thank you to everyone, especially our loyal season passholders and locals, who came to enjoy our Okanagan Champagne Powder! We’ll see you in a few short months for summer – opening June 29 if weather permits!