Snow Time (16 January 2017)

 

Silver Star was all about snow. This attractive resort village was located in the Okanagan Mountains in British Colombia with its closest town Vernon. The mountains were a couple of ranges east of the wetter Pacific coast so the area is known for dry snow and lots of it.

This year was not a great snow year but the depth of 1.5m was fine, though coverage thinned in spots of the most-used pistes at times. There had been unseasonally cold conditions too with over a month of temperatures below minus 20. A week of these temperatures only was the norm. We spent our fortnight with only the last two days going above minus 10.

The village centre comprised brightly coloured wooden apartment buildings with businesses at ground level along a pedestrianized main street extending to the lifts and ski slopes. There were additional apartment buildings adjacent to the village centre and private housing beyond. The main street had a number of bars, restaurants and businesses catering for visitors of all ages and also the ski school meeting place.

A pedestrian spine from the village centre led to parking areas and an entertainment area beyond with a skating lake, a tube park and bowling alley etc.

The residential areas were serviced by a shuttle bus. Design controls operated as all the private housing was integrated in appearance being constructed in timber-look materials and finished in neutral colours. The homes were surprisingly big and there was one reportedly owned by Antonia Kidman at the top of a lift. A pal of James claimed to have been at the bowling lanes with Nicole on one occasion! There was no snow making and it’s known for blue skies.

The resort is owned by an Australian. Lots of Australian families visit during the January holidays which is why we went. It was the low period as conditions are coldest, the days are shortest and for the locals the schools are all back after the Xmas / New Year break. The Australians would provide a welcome January boost for the local shops, bars and restaurants especially for the weekdays. The weekends are busy. We stayed in the main village so it was very handy for the main outlets. The bars were good with each one having a particular character. Serious local beers and some delicious ciders are good options. I mainly stuck to ciders. There are lots of well-regarded local wines too, with a significant number of wineries in the region.

The most important thing accomplished on our visit was leaving uninjured. James and Sam both set new personal speed records of which they were inordinately proud and Steve and I appalled. Sam also successfully completed a Level 1 Canadian Ski Instructor’s course.

The runs are not hugely long but the skiing was a lot more impressive than we’d expected. It is bigger than Australian resorts, in size as well as length and diversity of runs. There are only four main lifts on the mountain but these are all placed to give maximum access to lots of runs. The lifts provide access to the top of a ridge, then there are trails leading along and slightly down from each ridge providing access to an array of runs from very challenging to longer gentler runs. The network of trails was designed very efficiently to create a great deal of excellent skiing terrain. There are very few people on the pistes, except classes that you occasionally ran into onto the runs down to the main lift. The main lift did get busy on the weekends, so you needed to avoid this lift, which was achievable. There were a few places where the ridge traverses were a pain but overall, it was a very clever layout and once you were familiar with the terrain you could minimize the effort involved in getting to your intended piste.

Silver Star attracts downhill skiers, Nordic (cross country) skiers and a range of other sports enthusiasts, but particularly Nordic skiers. The resort has about 50km of groomed cross country trails ranging from basic, to more challenging, and another 55km at a Nordic ski centre about 2 km away. Steve and I tried Nordic skiing for three days and it was great, but hard work.

Apart from the need to be aerobically fit, skiers do a one legged glide motion to move efficiently in the groomed ski tracks over the snow. This is really difficult and we didn’t master it, though we definitely improved. I would love to do a training program. They ran a range of course including one over several days for older learners that sounded great. There was another type of Nordic skiing where you skate the whole time and use a slightly different shape of ski. It looked like even more effort so we didn’t opt for that version.

As the resort attracts Nordic skiers, there were lots of really fit looking older folk around which was great. The locals were very hospitable. We found all Canadians to be very friendly. We had a lovely time being told of a cabin for Nordic skiers where you could stop and rest. The skier who told us even had built a nice fire for us to warm up. We were slow compared to him so he’d prepared things for our arrival. We had a great rest with a skin from a young black bear on a wall in there being the only discordant note. The coat was absolutely gorgeous including the feet and head and the bear would have been a very beautiful creature.

There are a lot of bears around in the warmer months and you apparently make a lot of noise if there’s a black bear sighting and retreat slowly. It’s only a major problem if there is a mother and cubs involved. If you encountered a grizzly however, it’s much more dangerous. There were warning signs on lots of bins about bear awareness. Canadian outdoor enthusiasts we talked too while away all had bear tales!

Going downhill was quite tricky whilst Nordic skiing as the skis were so long and unwieldy. You needed to prepare for downhill stretches of any length otherwise you ended up headlong in a snowdrift. Nordic skiing was awesome in the cold conditions too because you warmed up from the exertion involved.

The resort had a great free guiding program too. You turn up at a particular time and local volunteer skiers took you around. We went twice, the first day to be shown around the different mountain areas (there were four separate areas so it took a bit of getting used to how they connected up) and then a second session a couple of days later to try some glade skiing. Each time it was a personal guide just for us. Glade skiing a great phenomenon of skiing through treed areas, where the pine tree coverage has been thinned out and obstacles like big boulders cleared out, to make it relatively safe to ski through the trees. It’s a real mindset change because avoiding trees is the main thought for skiers. You definitely do not want to run into a tree. Usually, you also stay on piste so your insurance cover isn’t voided. The glade skiing was just fabulous. The slopes were varying so you didn’t have to go on too difficult terrain. The glades were also between pistes so you can just duck in and out from the pistes if you wanted too. You needed to be with someone else to do glade skiing though as it was possible to get trapped in tree wells and have a great deal of difficulty getting out. The lads did lots of glade skiing as they were skiing with people who really knew their way around. I didn’t do a lot though I went out with the lads one afternoon and had a great time (Steve ditched) skiing along some BMX trails (the area was used in summer for BMX biking). They were so challenging as you ended up gathering speed along hollowed out trails (probably the inspiration for the Ice Age downhill slides) with lots of rapid changes of direction, bumps and sometimes getting air unintentionally.

Steve and I also did some walking on a common use trail that extended in a loop a couple of kilometres around the village. The loop was used by Nordic skiers, snow shoe-ers, fat bikers, walkers and dogs. It was lovely walking through the trees and there were some beautiful distant views.

Snow shoeing was very popular. There was an extensive network of trails going up and down hills including one lit night trail that was used by the snow shoe folk. These looked great and we were going to try this on our last day but we unfortunately ran out of time. We spoke to a lady snow shoe-er who described it as quite an effort that kept you warm. Looking in the equipment shop, snow shoes were heavier than I expected (like a big boot) but the elongated naan bread shape. Another time … The fat biking involved people hiring BMX bikes with very wide tyres. This looked great fun.

We saw quite a lot of dogs. Some dogs loved the snow playing excitedly, running around and having a great time, often not even wearing coats. We saw a few different canine ways to deal with the cold from bootie wearers to more traditional coat styles. One canny cross country skier on the multi-use trail had her dog running in front pulling her which looked great. A few, including a puppy just looked cold, though and had to be carried by owners inside coats.

The lads went skating and tubing, both things I would have liked to have done, but the evening chills kept me inside mainly. A great time was had by all.