Silver Star comes through with amazing early season skiing

by Keith and Heather Nicol    

     We were recently at Silver Star Mountain Resort near Vernon, B.C. to take in the CANSI (Canadian Association of Nordic Ski Instructors) Telemark Refresher and do some free skiing on some great early season snow. Many ski areas in B.C. suffered last year through a poor snow year, but so far the early winter of 2015-16 is proving to be much better in terms of steady snow falls. This is especially true of places like Silver Star where the storms just seemed to roll in one after another. On December 5^th and 6^th the front side lifts were turning at Silver Star and we spent most of our time on the Comet Express- a 6 person lift which serves a good mix of beginner and intermediate terrain. Another bonus was the pleasant temperatures which hovered just a few degrees below 0 C. 

Silver Star is has lots of instructors to improve your tele turns

   Silver Star Mountain Resort is known as a great family resort and we saw a large range of people enjoying the boarding and skiing over the weekend. They cater to young skiers and have a perfect place for them to learn right in the village. Silver Star also offers a wide range of other activities like cross country skiing, snowshoeing, ice skating, tubing and their latest offering:  fat tire biking. There should be something for everyone with that large mix of activities. Also with your day ticket you can access all of these activities as well which means that after your day of skiing you can go skating or tubing in the evening or get in a quick cross country ski before dinner. Also you might want to check out Silver Star’s Powpass which gets you 3 days of skiing for a very good price. But act fast since this deal only lasts until December 24. For more information see: http://www.skisilverstar.com/

Silver Star nicely blends alpine skiing and riding with tons of x-c ski trails

Silver Star has a popular learn to ski programme for the kids

   

Try a Supercamp at Sovereign Lake- Silver Star to improve your cross country skiing !

by Keith and Heather Nicol

There is a variety of Rossignol ski equipment to try out

      We just returned from a great Supercamp experience at Canada’s largest cross country ski trail network at the Sovereign Lake-Silver Star Nordic facility located near Vernon, B.C. The main Supercamps ran from November 20 to December 6, 2015 and they included 3 weekend camps and two 5 day mid week camps. These camps are worth looking at for many reasons including: amazing early season snow, well qualified CANSI instructors and coaches and a 105 km long trail system that is well groomed for classic and skate technique. Add to this presentations by waxing experts, access to a well -equipped weight room and high quality Rossignol ski equipment and what more could you ask for? And did I mention that many cross country ski teams use this area for their early season training camps so you are sharing the trails with some of the continent’s best cross country skiers. Guy Paulsen who helps organize the Supercamps told us that the number of skiers taking part keeps increasing and many skiers come back year after year. This year there were close to 200 who took part and they came from all over North America as well as England!

Our class tried juggling and striding at the same time!

    These camps are geared to everyone from first timers to advanced skiers wanting to improve their technique.  If you want a mid season tune up on your skiing you can still take in 2 more weekend camps which are scheduled for January 15-17, 2016, February 19-21, 2016 and a May camp with dates to be determined. For more information see:  http://www.skisilverstar.com/snow-school/special-programs/xc-supercamps.

The views from the trails can be spectacular

There are 105 km of trails at Silver Star and Sovereign Lake Nordic ski area

We really appreciated the well groomed tracks for skate and classic skiing