An influx of reservations from the Lower Mainland prompts Big White to close a week early

Photo: Nicholas Johansen/file

Big White will shut down operations for the season a week ahead of scheduled.

Senior vice-president Michael J. Ballingall confirmed Big White will close for the season Monday afternoon at 4 p.m.

"We have seen an unprecedented amount of inquiries for accommodations and lift tickets from the Lower Mainland," said Ballingall.

"This is obviously because of the fact that Whistler is closed. What we are enormously afraid of is if we stay open, people are going to travel that shouldn't be travelling, and just by the law of averages and numbers, COVID-19 and the P1 variant will be amongst those people.

"In order for them not to travel, we are going to turn off the resort so they don't have a reason to travel."

Ballingall says if Big White had stayed open, they would have been the only resort west of the Kootenays open after the Easter long weekend.

"We are getting calls to our 1-800 number, on our website, we can see where people are inquiring from. We can see that lift ticket sales are from the 604 area code.

"We made the decision that it is not worth staying open and these people showing up in our back yard. It puts everybody at risk."

Big White was originally scheduled to close for the season Sunday, April 11.