Facilities & Services
The rustic day lodge at
Whitewater ski resort houses all the ski resort services and amenities. These include guest services, lockers, ticket sales, the mountain learning centre, café, bar and the WH2O shop.
Eating On Mountain
The Fresh Tracks Café is not your average ski resort cafeteria. Some of the fare is traditional cafeteria food, but they also have lots of healthy yummies such as samosas, homemade soups, and an array of freshly baked goods. The coffee bar has local organic coffee, salads and rolls, and they actually know how to make a coffee (which is a bit of a rarity in North America). Here, I had one of the best muffins I’ve ever put my taste buds to (big call I know!). So good is the food that the cooks have published recipe books. These have become a coveted must-have accessory for the kitchen.
Coal Oil Johnny’s Pub is in an area off to the side of the café. They provide table service for lunch, après appetisers and the all important cold beer. The deck is a great place to perch in the sunshine and pretend to watch the kids playing outside.
Facilities for Children
Child care is provided at Whitewater for the little ones 18 months to 6 years old. Daycare can be provided on an hourly basis or for the whole day. The service is licensed and professional, and provided at rock-bottom prices. Capacity is limited, and they take children on a first come first served basis.
Ski School
The learning centre provides lessons for snowboarding and alpine and telemark skiing. Whitewater offers great value for money packages for beginners. For more advanced riders, group lesson opportunities are limited to a free-ride club on Sundays, but the private lessons are so inexpensive that it’s worth paying a little extra for the individualised attention. Whitewater have irregular programs for avalanche skills training, backcountry touring and level 1 instructor courses.
For children aged 6-12 they have 2 hour group lessons from 10-12 and 1-3pm, with the option of a supervised lunch. These are incredibly inexpensive, so make the most of it.
Ski and Snowboard Rentals
The Whitewater rental and repair shop has a range of ski, telemark and snowboard equipment for hire. Only Rossignol gear is on offer, but this includes standard and high performance equipment. They also hire out clothing, helmets, and backcountry and avalanche safety equipment.
Nelson has several ski and snowboard shops, but these largely focus on retail not rental. One exception is Gericks (702 Baker Street, Nelson) that has cross-country ski hire. The other possibility for snowboard and ski rentals is at the Boomtown Sports Emporium (510 Hall Street) with prices that are approximately 10 percent lower than at the ski hill. They also sell recycled gear.
Banking and Internet Facilities
At Whitewater there can be some major communication challenges, with no cell phone coverage and limited internet connectivity. You’ll just have to revert to old-fashioned methods of making plans to meet up with family and friends.
There is an ATM in the day lodge.