Big White Ski
Big White Ski is a ski area located in the province of British Columbia in Canada. The resort is in the town of Kelowna, BC.
We recently ranked all of British Columbia's ski resorts, so you can see where Big White Ski stacks up against all its nearby ski hills!
Season Passes
Big White Ski is not a part of any nationwide lift ticket system. Passes such as Epic, IKON, or Mountain Collective allow pass holders to ski at multiple mountians with a single purchase. Unfortunately, none of those passes work with Big White Ski. To purchase season passes, you'll need to visit Big White Ski's website.
Lodging Options
There are numerous options to stay at Big White Ski around the resort. Check out the available options with the form below.
Big White Ski Terrain Overview
Big White Ski has a total of 119 ski trails, which are serviced by 16 ski lifts, gondolas and/or trams. The amount of skiable area in this park is huge, with a maximum of 2,765 acres available to skiers. This area is equivalent to 1,119 hectares, 4.3 square miles, or 11.2 square kilometers.
Big White Ski's slopes see on average 282 inches (7.2 meters) of snowfall a year. That is almost 23 feet every year!
Total Runs
119
Lifts
16
Skiable Acres
2,765(11 km2)
Annual Snowfall
282"(716 cm)
Big White Ski Elevation
Big White Ski has a summit elevation of 7,606 feet, or 2,318 meters. However, not all of that elevation is able to be skied. The base of the ski slope sits at 4,950 feet above sea level, creating a ski hill that is 2,656 feet (810 meters) high. This is referred to as the slope's vertical drop - or a measure of how high the skiable hill is.
Big White Ski's summit elevation is higher than average. There are a lot of ski slopes that are much higher than this one (some stretch to 12,000 feet!), but it is not small by any stretch of the imagination.
Summit Elevation
7,606'(2,318 m)
Vertical Drop
2,656'(810 m)
Base Elevation
4,950'(1,509 m)
Big White Ski Difficulty Level
Difficulty Score™
60.7out of 100
DID YOU KNOW?
At Parks & Trips, we've created a proprietary Difficulty Score that attempts to show how difficult a particular ski slope is. We get to this number by combining a number of metrics for each resort and comparing them to its peers. Most of the score is based off the amount of easy-intermediate-expert slopes by acreage and the maximum vertical drop of the overall resort, but also includes a few lesser-used metrics as well.
Our algorithm compares each resort’s metrics with all others in North America, then assigns each a Difficulty Score, which we use to rank them accordingly. Resorts with a lower score are easier to ski than those with a higher one. However, a high score does not mean that the resort does not have any easy slopes, or vice versa. This is just an overall score given to the resort based on all its metrics grouped together.
Skiable Terrain by Difficulty Level
Big White Ski has 2,765 total skiable acres, which can be broken down into the three main groups of difficulty: Beginner, Intermediate, and Expert.
Big White Ski's difficulty level is higher than average, which is because 54% of its ski trails are rated as intermediate, and another 28% as expert.
Beginner
18%(498 acres)
Beginner trails (identified by a green circle) are the easiest trails on the hill with a gradual 25% or less gradient, and are usually wide to accommodate beginner skiers.
Intermediate
54%(1,493 acres)
Intermediate trails (identified by a blue square) are usually the most popular and crowded runs, which have a slope of anywhere between 25-40%.
Expert
28%(774 acres)
Expert trails (identified by a black diamond... or two) are the hardest slopes on the mountain, and have very steep gradients over 40%.
Is Big White Ski good for beginners?
Big White Ski is above average in its difficulty level, so... probably not? It will depend on which trails you take since only 72% of its trails rated for either beginner or intermediate skill levels.
Big White Ski Location
Big White Ski is located in the province of British Columbia, Canada. This ski area is nearest the town of Kelowna, BC.
Address:
Kelowna, BC V1P Canada
View on Google Maps
Website:
bigwhite.com
GPS Coordinates:
49.72163, -118.92877
Getting to Big White Ski
By Car: If you are driving, you would set your GPS to either the ski resort's name (Big White Ski), its coordinates of 49.72163, -118.92877 (latitude, longitude), or simply drive towards the town of Kelowna, BC to get close.
By Air: If you are coming in from across the country, then you may need to board an airplane to get here.
A medium-sized airport has scheduled regional airline service. This type of airport may or may not accept international flights. Here are the closest medium-sized airport(s) to Big White Ski.
| Name | Code | City | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kelowna International Airport | YLW | Kelowna, BC | 41 km |
| Penticton Airport | YYF | Penticton, BC | 56 km |
| Castlegar/West Kootenay Regional Airport | YCG | Castlegar, BC | 105 km |
There may also be much smaller regional airports next to Big White Ski, but we didn't list them here due to the fact that no major airlines go through them.
Other Nearby Ski Resorts
Skiers will - especially if coming from far away - try and visit a couple different slopes all in the same trip. Here are the closest other ski slopes within 100 miles of Big White Ski.
| Name | Location | Summit | Difficulty Score™ | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Baldy Mountain Resort | Oliver, BC | 6,965 ft | 37% | 67 km |
| Silverstar Mountain | Spallumcheen, BC | 6,283 ft | 64% | 72 km |
| Sovereign Lake Nordic Center | Vernon, BC | 6,060 ft | 33% | 72 km |
| Phoenix Mountain Ski Area | Grand Forks, BC | 4,652 ft | 38% | 73 km |
| Apex Mountain | Hedley, BC | 7,187 ft | 51% | 80 km |
| Summit Lake Ski Area | Nakusp, BC | 3,018 ft | 11% | 104 km |
| RED Mountain | Rossland, BC | 6,807 ft | 72% | 106 km |
| Echo Valley | Colville, WA | 3,900 ft | 50% | 140 km |
| Harper Mountain | Kamloops, BC | 5,000 ft | 45% | 141 km |
| Sun Peaks | Sun Peaks, BC | 7,060 ft | 67% | 146 km |
| Revelstoke | Revelstoke, BC | 7,300 ft | 100% | 148 km |
Big White Ski Mountain Stats
| Name | Statistic |
|---|---|
| Summit Elevation | 7,606 ft |
| Base Elevation | 4,950 ft |
| Vertical Drop | 2,656 ft |
| Trails | 119 (18% Beginner, 54% Intermediate, 28% Expert) |
| Lifts | 16 |
| Skiable Acres | 2,765 |
| Avg. Annual Snowfall | 282 inches |