Report from December 8th, 2018

Silver Star Mountain Resort in BC, Canada is unlike anywhere I’ve ever skied.

The place is cute and quaint with a brightly colored Victorian village in the front contrasted against a looming, 1900-acre backside full of steep, dreamy, heli-ski-esque terrain in the back.

The place is huge.

It’s BC’s 3rd largest ski resort at 3,300′ (about the size of Mammoth, CA) with a 2,500-vertical-foot drop.

Two-thirds of the mountain is below the parking lot…

Silver Star clearly goes out of their way for families – as displayed by the large, fuzzy fox mascot handing out candy canes yesterday – yet they have that big, bad backside of nothing but black and double black diamonds to keep the chargers in the family satisfied.

The place is very modern with a brand new gondola and a crazy fast six-pack chair.

I spent the day yesterday zipping around an empty, lift-lineless front side of the mountain (backside not quite open yet this early season) between gorgeous, snow-plastered pine forests on perfect groomers.

This place is known for champagne powder and good, cold snow. 

It hasn’t snowed in about a week but the snow has stayed excellent due to cold temps and light winds.  

The snow on the groomers was surprisingly soft and supple, and when I dove into the trees the powder patches I hit were still dry, sugary, and explosive.

It’s clear the Silver Star has a lot of potential.

A powder day here would be wild.

I can’t wait to come back and get weird on the 1,900-acres of rowdy terrain on the backside…

Silver Star even has a backcountry zone for the more adventurous where the powder won’t ever get fully tracked out.

SILVER STAR STATS:

• 3rd Largest Ski Area in British Columbia
• 3,282 Ski Able Acres
• 2,500-Vertical-Feet
• Base = 3,780′
• Village = 5,280′
• Summit = 6,280′
• 132 Runs
• 275″ of Annual Snowfall
• Terrain:
  • 15% Easiest
  • 40% Intermediate
  • 35% Most Difficult
  • 10% Extreme
• 55-Minutes from Kelowna International Airport
• 22-Minutes from Vernon, BC

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