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WATCH: Crews proud to get Big White trails ready

Prolonged winter brings challenges

  • How the late spring melt presented challenges
  • Late snowfall hampered efforts to get trails ready

They love lots of snow at Big White … unless they’re trying to get the trails ready for a summer season that took its sweet time.

The long, slow snowmelt this year delayed the summer opening but it’s now all systems go thanks to the efforts of crews who were on the slopes helping transform the resort from a powder paradise to a biking bonanza.

“I am extremely proud of my team and the effort they put in this year. They’re amazing,” patrol director Drew Gobeil told Kelowna10 after last week's summer opening. “They’re all passionate riders; psyched to get the park open.”

Work on the series of separate summer trails got underway in April as soon as the ski season ended. That involved the digging of trenches by excavators. By exposing the paths, it allows the snow to melt and flow away, according to Gobeil.

Then the crews work by hand with rakes, shovels and plate tampers to smooth the trails, eliminating bumps and excess loose rocks which bikers could slide on.

“Pry Bar’, a popular green level trail got a full buff this season with an excavator smoothing everything out.

“That trail’s really as good as it’s ever been,” Gobeil said, adding they focus a lot on drainage to ensure water does not run down the pathways and wash them away.

The past months were a big challenge for the crews, because of the excessive amounts and late snowfall.

“Just seeing the trenches the excavators make, and then they make these piles that are taller than the machine. There are places where we had like, 12- or 15-foot piles or even bigger and it’s just a mountain of snow.”

“And then the struggle we had this year was it snowed after those trenches were dug and kind of filled in [again].”

Crews worked on the lower portion of the mountain while waiting for the slow melt at higher elevations.

Gobeil said without their methodical approach each spring, the trails would be too soft, have holes on them, have rocks popping out. Those are hazards they want to eliminate.

Eighty per cent of the summer trail network is currently operational.

“Everyone is working so hard, they’ve really pushed to get this place open.”

Published 2022-07-08 by David Hanson

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