Big White Staff urge public to keep away after trespassing teen suffers back injury

KELOWNA (NEWS 1130) — Management at Big White Ski Resort near Kelowna are frustrated, after a group of teens snuck onto the resort area on Friday, and one ended up getting hurt.

Vice-President Michael Jay Ballingall says they snuck into an area known as a terrain park. ‘So it’s like a skateboard park on snow, and they had moved some apparatuses around, and they were hanging out playing some music and just using the facilities, even though they were trespassing and the resort was closed.”

Ballingall says it’s not the first time people have snuck on to the mountain, and unfortunately, some people “just don’t listen.”

“The most frustrating part about this is that these are some of the same people that are coming up the mountain every day and you know we’ve tagged their car, we put warnings on their windshield that your car will be towed and there’s very few things that we can do from a legal standpoint,” he says.

The resort has been closed for weeks, so there are no longer any safety patrols in place.

Ballingall stresses the importance that people should stay away until next year.

“I understand their concerns, I understand their interest and maybe wanting to de-stress from other areas of the province. However, this is not the time to come here,” he says.

“We want to get through this period to where [B.C. Health Officer] Bonnie Henry says [she’s] not encouraging people to travel right now. We want to get through this. We want to keep our community safe as well as the people who are coming here we want to ensure that they are safe, having been in their own community, so it’s a difficult time, it’s a difficult time for everybody.