On The Slopes in Big White

Although Canada’s largest ski-in/ ski-out village, Big White remains relatively unknown on the international scene which plays perfectly into the hands of those on the SnowSkool ski instructor course or snowboard instructor course who enjoy life without lift lines! If it snows 30cm on a Monday, it’ll take until Friday to get it tracked out...on the pistes. And then another week or so for most of the freshies to be skied-out off-piste! But by then, it would have snowed again!

The best thing about Big White though is that it is right in your backyard…ski down the road to your house, or to the shops – the main street through the village is a pisted ski run!

Snowfall

A powder day is never far away in Big White. The resort is best known for its “Champagne Powder” – the snow falling in Big White has the lowest water content of any resort in Canada – perfect for skiing and snowboarding, although not so good for a snowball fight! In an average year, 27 feet of these light, fluffy snowflakes fall for your skiing and snowboarding pleasure between early December and mid April. Big White is the kind of place where you’ll have the best day’s riding you’ll have ever experienced and you’ll still hear a local complain that it’s not as good as it was last week...typical spoilt Canadians!

Terrain

The 118 named runs on the Big White piste map span five powder bowls over almost 3000 acres of skiable terrain. It is a fantastic training mountain for a ski instructor course or snowboard instructor course - long, cruisey green and blue runs provide ideal terrain for perfecting drills on your skis or snowboard. As your riding progresses, there are steeper and deeper black and double-black diamond runs for pushing your skills further and working your way up to hitting areas like The Cliff, where many SnowSkool students will get their first taste of truly hardcore off-piste lines. The park crew at Big White work hard to ensure that the Big White Ski & Snowboard Terrain Park brings a variety of well-built booters and various mellow & gnarly rails.

But one thing that seasonnaires at Big White know only too well: the Piste Map is a starting point. Where Big White really comes into its own is in the trees. The whole mountain is covered with trees and skiers and snowboarders will dive into and emerge from trees at every angle and all over the mountain...experience tight trees requiring full concentration, spaced-out trees like gates, fallen trees/ branches as natural hits and hidden powder stashes. All at Big White.

The Ski & Board School

The Ski & Board School at Big White Ski Resort is the last word in professionalism. It is a hugely progressive school that has employed thirty-five former SnowSkool graduates to work as ski instructors or snowboard instructors in the past four years. You will receive five hours of lessons, five days per week from some of Canada’s most experienced and most qualified ski instructors and snowboard instructors.

"After developing the training schedule for the SnowSkool snowboard and ski instructor courses, it only seems logical that I do not look outside the SnowSkool group when recruiting for new ski instructors and snowboard instructors to work at Big White. In the past four years, we have employed 30-40 graduates of the SnowSkool Big White programme.”

- Josh Foster, Director of Snowsports, Big White Ski Resort.

Interested in finding out more ...

• Become a ski instructor with SnowSkool
• Become a snowboard instructor with SnowSkool