tseeb
Well-known member
I drove from San Jose, CA to WA on Monday, passing through Bend, OR but skipping Bachelor due to high rain level and wind. I crossed the Columbia River a little after 4 PM which meant I was early enough for a wine tasting at Waving Tree winery, then a stop at Stonehenge replica before it got dark. I spent night at rest stop between Yakima and Ellensburg and crossed border about noon. It was sunny and 55 in Kelowna where I picked up Tony Crocker at airport about 3.
Wednesday morning we left Kelowna about 8 AM, then stopped less than a mile off Highway 97 on our way to Big White, to get discount card that included a direct-to-lift ticket, but drug store we tried did not open until 8:30. While still in parking lot, a friend who lived in West Kelowna called and said Big White would have very limited visibility so we re-routed to Silver Star, which is treed to the top and 22 km E of Vernon, about 50 km N of Kelowna. We were on hill about 9:30 and skied below mile-high parking lot to Comet Express, the 6-pack that services a lot of the front side. Silver Star reported about an inch new and another inch or two fell during the day and they had great coverage. We found groomed runs were excellent at the top with the little new snow, but got firmer towards bottom where precipitation was wetter. On our second time down we continued past base of Comet lift to Silver Woods lift where base is about 4,000' and decided going that low once was enough.
I'd only heard that Silver Star was the place you could ski latest on Mustang pickup day and did not realize the amount of terrain available including a backside with at least 20 black runs plus 15 runs marked double-diamond, although with the soft snow they were mostly not with the 'don't fall here' consequences that I usually think of with double-diamond runs. Silver Star claims to be the 3rd largest BC ski area with over 3,200 acres. We moved to the backside using 8 km El Dorado run. The backside lift, Powder Gulch Express, is 1840 vertical feet, but with it's base below 4,000 feet it did get damp towards the bottom. The lift runs up a ridge and there also are other ridges on either side and a great amount and variety of terrain and exposures off the three ridges. Snow on the top half was very good, but it got crunchier lower down where precipitation was wetter and some of it was re-frozen. We did about 8 laps there with a stop for a late lunch at small Western-themed restaurant near the top of Backside where waiter served me the day's C$8.99 special - grilled cheese sandwich with cup of chicken rice soup.
After lunch we took Bon Diablo, a long, winch-cat groomed black run that skied well, and from which we spotted, then skied Free Fall, a double-diamond run that I liked most of what we skied all day. We did not ski Gowabunga, the longest double-diamond runs of any on the backside as it looked very bumped out and did not make it to Attridge, looker's left of frontside, serviced by slow Alpine Meadows chair. On our last run we skied towards that area and at the bottom crossed a bridge that dropped us to wrong parking lot, but it was a short walk to the right one. My watch said I rode 16 lifts, but it probably skipped the two T-bar rides at the top of Backside chair, and 26,450 vertical feet.
Wednesday morning we left Kelowna about 8 AM, then stopped less than a mile off Highway 97 on our way to Big White, to get discount card that included a direct-to-lift ticket, but drug store we tried did not open until 8:30. While still in parking lot, a friend who lived in West Kelowna called and said Big White would have very limited visibility so we re-routed to Silver Star, which is treed to the top and 22 km E of Vernon, about 50 km N of Kelowna. We were on hill about 9:30 and skied below mile-high parking lot to Comet Express, the 6-pack that services a lot of the front side. Silver Star reported about an inch new and another inch or two fell during the day and they had great coverage. We found groomed runs were excellent at the top with the little new snow, but got firmer towards bottom where precipitation was wetter. On our second time down we continued past base of Comet lift to Silver Woods lift where base is about 4,000' and decided going that low once was enough.
I'd only heard that Silver Star was the place you could ski latest on Mustang pickup day and did not realize the amount of terrain available including a backside with at least 20 black runs plus 15 runs marked double-diamond, although with the soft snow they were mostly not with the 'don't fall here' consequences that I usually think of with double-diamond runs. Silver Star claims to be the 3rd largest BC ski area with over 3,200 acres. We moved to the backside using 8 km El Dorado run. The backside lift, Powder Gulch Express, is 1840 vertical feet, but with it's base below 4,000 feet it did get damp towards the bottom. The lift runs up a ridge and there also are other ridges on either side and a great amount and variety of terrain and exposures off the three ridges. Snow on the top half was very good, but it got crunchier lower down where precipitation was wetter and some of it was re-frozen. We did about 8 laps there with a stop for a late lunch at small Western-themed restaurant near the top of Backside where waiter served me the day's C$8.99 special - grilled cheese sandwich with cup of chicken rice soup.
After lunch we took Bon Diablo, a long, winch-cat groomed black run that skied well, and from which we spotted, then skied Free Fall, a double-diamond run that I liked most of what we skied all day. We did not ski Gowabunga, the longest double-diamond runs of any on the backside as it looked very bumped out and did not make it to Attridge, looker's left of frontside, serviced by slow Alpine Meadows chair. On our last run we skied towards that area and at the bottom crossed a bridge that dropped us to wrong parking lot, but it was a short walk to the right one. My watch said I rode 16 lifts, but it probably skipped the two T-bar rides at the top of Backside chair, and 26,450 vertical feet.
