Big White skating rink is closed for season, 'too much sunshine"

Photo: Big White Ski Resort

It's another sure sign of spring.

The skating rink at Big White Ski Resort is closing for the season.

Big White Ski Resort senior vice-president Michael Ballingall says, "with all of this brilliant sunshine, we have sad news. Although we've had a very good run, unfortunately, we've had to close the skating rink effective immediately."

Ballingall says this isn't unusual, In fact, he welcomes the sunshine just in time for spring break.

"The good news is it's sunny. If the only thing I have to give up is the skating rink, fantastic. I mean, at seven o'clock in the morning it's good ice, by 11 a.m. it's slush. So it died yesterday."

The skating rink at Big White typically closes before spring break, so it's not unusual and Ballingall says most of the people who come for spring break are from out of town and they prefer to ski, tube and night ski.

"It's been busy for two weeks. We've had Quebec, we've had Ontario, we've had Hawaii. We're at about 85% occupancy. We go up to close to 100% on the weekend. So it's very busy," Ballingall says.

Ballingall says the sunshine is welcome and the mountain will be just fine without another snowfall.

"We don't need another flake of snow. We will have snow until June. We want sunshine, suntans, goggle tans. We don't need any new stuff."

Big White Ski Resort will remain open until April 10 and Ballingall says the resort is now on the hunt for a good used Zamboni.

"If you know where we can get a good used Zamboni, please reach out to [email protected].," he says. "See you March 31 and April 1 for Altitunes!"