Big White Ski Resort

Big White is the Okanagan's big mountain resort, up the road from Kelowna and open year-round. It is the second-largest family ski resort in British Columbia — 2,834 acres of patrolled terrain, one of Canada's largest modern lift systems and more than seven metres of the champagne powder behind its motto, 'it's the snow' — and from December 18 it also runs the largest night-skiing operation in Western Canada, lighting the Bullet Express and Plaza Chair for 38 acres and the longest night vertical in North America, with TELUS Park lit on Friday and Saturday nights. Free Snow Host mountain tours leave the Village Centre every morning at 10:15, and for the 2026/27 season Happy Valley's beginner area gains Polar Passage, a new covered conveyor lift with expanded teaching terrain. Happy Valley is also where the rest of Big White's winter lives: the Tube Park, Canada's highest outdoor skating rink, 25 kilometres of Nordic and Wilderness trails, the illuminated Twinkling Trail, Candle Creek Kennels' dog-sled tours, Outback's snowmobile tours and the horse-drawn sleigh rides — each with its own page on Okanagan Roam. The 2026/27 season runs November 26, 2026 to April 4, 2027. In summer the mountain turns into a bike park — downhill trails, the Big White Slopestyle Centre and a beginner skills area — with scenic rides on the Bullet Chair, e-bike tours and a real alpine hiking network: the 4.5 km Rhonda Lake Trail drops from the top of the chair through spruce and pine to a lake hidden under the Cliff bowl (about an hour one way, 456 metres of elevation), the 1 km Peak Trail loops along the Cliff Bowl rim to the summit cairn in 45 minutes, the 4 km Falcon Ridge Trail climbs the face of the mountain past wildflower streams to a scramble at the saddle, and the short, steep Jamieson Loop finds the last of the winter snow. The resort suggests three hours for the classic loop up Falcon Ridge and down to Rhonda Lake, backed by its wildflower and bird field guides. Hikers ride the chair until 4 p.m. (6 p.m. on Fridays), and dogs are welcome on the lift and must be leashed on the trails. The resort lists driving, parking and EV charging among its free amenities, offers overnight RV parking in summer, and runs shuttles from Kelowna and the airport.