So it appears that our summer up here is over. We have had a cold change settle in over the last week which has resulted in temperatures of around 6 degrees celcius during the day . It has brought some snow to the upper mountain and have even had a couple of light flurries at the upper village/feathertop area. So with this in mind, Its time to start thinking forward to what our season is going to be like! While many of the weather forecsating websites having been speculating over the last few months, its really now that we should start to see some more accurate forecasting (if that is ever possible!!)

The general consensus is that we will be experiencing a weak La Nina Pattern this year. This followed on from an El Nino event over last season. Surprisingly, there are very few websites that forecast for BC; the majority I have come across are mainly for the States. So for the purpose of this blog, i’m going to make massive assumptions and lump us in with the Pacific Northwest forecasts that have focused on Washington State and Oregon.

What most people are saying is that The La Nina event is going to bring high levels of precipitation and long periods of cold weather for the PNW. The obvious result is SNOW SNOW SNOW. I’m hoping this is true. Speaking to a couple of the long term residents up here, many of them are seeing the same or similar weather patterns happening now that have occurred in the record breaking snow seasons!  

So what do you think? what are your predicitions for the winter? If you have lived here for a long time, how do you think the weather is comparing with some of the bigger snow years?  and if you know of any good BC forecasting websites, please let me know because I’d love to see them! 

I’m looking forward to reading your predictions!

The TELUS Park Lift closed late last season due to the return bullwheel bearings failing. Today the millwrights started the process of repairing the lift. Each bearing weighs about 70 lbs and there are three. First they had to remove all of the chairs from the lift. Then they took all the tension off the haul rope by lowering the counter-weight to the ground allowing the carriage to move forward. Once the haul rope was de-tensioned they could clamp the haul rope at the top of the lift and pull the haul rope up hill, away from the bullwheel. The millwrights could then start rigging the bullwheel so it could be lowered to the ground. Next they will remove the old bearings, clean everything up and install the new bearings and put the bullwheel back in place. Once this is complete, the TELUS Park lift will be back in business!

Jade Critchlow’s recap of the world Jrs.:

Well this moring we left the Snowbird (Mt Hotham) at 6am and drove back to Melbourne.  It was only a four hour flight over to Queenstown, New Zealand, so it wasn’t too bad!  Then it was a one hour drive up to Wanaka, where we unpacked and just chilled the rest of the day.  In the morning we left for Cardrona at 9am and had a great day on the hill!  We had one day at Cardrona and one day at Park!  We had two days of training on the track that went very well!! 

On August 21st was the Jr. World Championships!!!  We all got two timed runs, the guys went first, then the girls went. Tommy & Mitch Pitman, and Alex all qualified!  Me (Jade), ZiggyCowan and Fredrique Joncas qualified, Shayna Goodwin just missed qualifying by 2 spots and Tess got to forerum for the girls!  In the guys first heat Tommy got 3rd place, and Mitch came in 4th.  In the girls first heat Ziggy was against a girl from the Chec Republic, and got 2nd in her first heat!  Fredrique and I were together in our heat!  The race was super tight, in the end I got 1st and Fred got 3rd!  Ziggy and I were on to the next round!

In my second heat I was racing against Faye Gulini from the USA!  It was a super fun race but in the end I got 4th, so I went to the small finals. In Ziggy’s second race she was against the Chec girl again and got 2nd and was through to the Finals!!  In my final race I was in 2nd place all the way to the last set of rollers where I sketched out and got passed, so I finished the race in 4th!  In the finals Ziggy was racing against Faye, and the Chec girl, it was a super competitive race!  Ziggy fought hard right until the end and finished in forth!!  Overall Tommy got 25th and Mitch got 31st!! Fred got 14th, I got 8th and Ziggy got 4th!

Great job Canadian Snowboard Cross riders, especially our Big White girls Jade and Tess!

GP & Don greasing and changing sheaves on the Bullet

 The guys have completed greasing the lifts and are moving onto other maintenance items. This week the main focus has been non destruct testing. Non destruct testing (NDT) is done on the metal parts of the grip and the haul rope. Between 20 and 50 percent of every carrier on the mountain is NDT’d annually.  This involves stripping the grip down to pieces and cleaning them.  After NDT the bushings are replaced and the grips are greased and reassembled.  NDT  is done using an electro magnetic field. The metal parts are charged, then iron particle solution is poured over the part. The magnetic field, when it encounters a crack, reflects some of  the electro magnetic field. This causes the crack to become its own magnetic field.  The iron filings gather at that field and, under a black light, any cracks glow. Any part that is found to have a crack is replaced.

Two things should be noted:

Thanks to Darcy Arnold, Millwright Lead Hand, for providing the technical explanations in this blog and,  GP & Don are not our only two millwrights, they just seem to be the two that aren’t camera shy!

Top & back of Big White

 A: Back of Falcon, B: Back of Big White, C: Top of the mountain, D: Top of the moutnain towards the Falcon.

E: Alpine Bump Shack, F: My favourite wild flowers (at the moment), G:  Back of Bullet & Rhonda Lake

As I was wondering around at the top of the Bullet I noticed a couple of Deer wandering by Sun Run and Highway 33. One of the deer went up to the trail sign, I guess even the locals need directions once in a while!

Even deer need directions sometimes!

Big White team at the Best Western

We want the games!   Thanks to all those who came out to support Kelowna’s bid for the 2015 Canada Winter Games on Wednesday.  The 2015 evaluation team came to Kelowna to view our facilities and check out Kelowna as a staging area for the games.  The Big White team welcomed them at the Best Western along with the Loose Moose and Boomer the Kangaroo.  We threw down the red carpet for their entrance and in true Big White form, we were definitely heard loud and clear, “We want the games!”

One of the evaluating team’s stops was the Capital News Center where athletes, coaches, families and students came out to show their support for the games.  Ross Rebagliati, who won the first Olympic gold medal in Snowboarding, Josh Gorges, a local who now plays for the Montreal Canadians, and Deirdra Dionne, who won bronze in freestyle skiing in the 2002 Olympics all came out to speak to the crowd and the evaluation team in support of the games.

Kelowna is up against Prince George and Kamloops for the 2015 Winter Games.  We’ll have to wait until September 17th for the announcement as to who will host the games.  Good luck Kelowna!!

Capital News Center

Tess

From Tess Critchlow in Australia to you:

Our second day of racing went almost as well as the first. For time trials we all beat our times from the day before, Jade got the best time again, and I  placed 4th and Shayna placed 5th. This was not in our favour when it came to the heats. Unfortunately we all got put in the SAME heat! Lame right! So that meant that only two of us could move on to the finals   The race was super intense and close! Jade pulled out first with me and shayna right on her heels! After the first two features I had caught right up to her and made a pass, sadly I could only hold it for a minute. Now Me and Shayna were neck in neck behind Jade, with the Aussie trailing behind. The rest of the race was just as close! At the finish line it was Jade with 1st, me with 2nd and Shayna in 3rd! It was a very bitter sweet race! Shayna made it through to Small finals, which she placed a very close 2nd! So she ended up 6th overall! In the Finals, the race was super tight between me and Jade!! Over the first few features the racer behind me came right up close and i lost my balance, her and the other racer passed me, but that was just not right. Over the next rollers i pumped them as hard as i could and made a pass on the out side putting me back in second. At the second berm Jade sketched out and there was a glimmer of hope for me to pass that sadly faded fast when she pulled herself together and made it out the the berm on her feet. I followed right behind her right till the finish!! Jade got 1st, and I got 2nd! So it was not a full Canadian sweep on the podium but it was as close as we could get it. We had gotten super lucky with weather for the races, both days were blue sky. But the last 3 days since the race,have been snow and wind, which is a good thing but the 28m/h winds are a little harsh. We have still been training every day, and are all just super stoked to be in Australia! And we can’t wait for the Slalom that is coming up on the 14th!!

Way to go girls!!!  Good luck in the upcoming races!

Jade

As you may or may not know, Kelowna and Big White are proud to be the hosts of the International Children’s winter games next year in January. The games will be held between January 26-31st, 2011, and will feature athletes aged 12 to 15 from all over the globe.

The sports include Alpine and cross country skiing, curling, figure skating, Hockey!, speed skating, and snowboarding (both slopestyle and snowcross!). Either way it is going to be a huge few days of fantastic competition, festivities, and friendship. This is the 5th International Children’s Games, and the first to be held outside of Europe! So make sure you mark the dates in your calendar and come on up to Big White to check out all the action. And make sure you remember the names of the athletes competing, because these are the future Olympians you will be seeing! We know that these athletes will be pushing the boundaries of their sport into a new era of progression, just as we have seen todays athletes do the exact same thing.

For more information visit http://internationalchildrensgames-kelowna2011.com/kelowna-2011/\

P.S If you are interested in volunteering for this amazing event, follow the links in the website to see how you can get involved.