Pillows with a Silver lining

DOC POW

SILVER STAR, BC — It may surprise you but Silver Star’s unique mid-mountain village location surprises many a visitor. 

"A lot of our guests drive up, look at the mountain and go, ah is that your terrain,” said guest relations manager, Heather McLellen.  

However, from the village and day parking lots guests can only see about 30% of the terrain. This provides a ton of ski-in, ski-out opportunities. In addition to all the adventures both off-hill and on, Silver Star is home to some outstanding accommodation options.  

Even before checking in, keep in mind at both Big White and Silver Star resorts, if you are flying into Kelowna via WestJet, show your boarding pass to the guest services folks that same day and you’ll receive a complimentary lift ticket.

Great pillow to powder ratio

"We have only 3,500 pillows here in our village, but with all these incredible chair lifts, our alpine area can handle 10 times that," said cross-country ski manager, Glenn Bond. "This translates into more powder on the mountain for us and mostly none existent lift lines."  

"It’s just second nature to welcome our guests as family,” says McLennen, "I had a gentleman the other day who’s zipper broke on this jacket, so I took it into town to the tailor and brought it back up a couple of days later when it was ready; that’s no big deal for me. Because we are a bit smaller, we have the ability to personally cater."

Christine Kastner is a 15 year veteran with the resort’s ski partners program and calls Silver Star village home year round.  

"It’s the snow – we actually moved here because it’s ski in/ski out. This snow is fabulous and the runs are exciting.” 

Ski from your door

And it literally is ski-in, ski-out, with almost all of the accommodations equipped with the ability to simply walk out your door and down onto a run.

Certainly a stay at the Snowbird Lodge will not let you down. This place is all dialed up with personal hot tubs on the deck over looking the hill. These fully equipped slope-side condos are finished with granite counter tops and silver appliances.  

For a more rustic stay, check into the Pinnacles Suite Hotelwith its huge range in accommodation options. I recently stayed in one of the rooms that could have slept 14 people! It even had one of those old school bronze open fire pits, like something you see in an Austin Powers flick – it was stellar. The big thing with the Pinnacle is the view; there is a panorama scene from the private decks so get your cameras ready for the sunrise. 

First of its kind

Long time Silver Star resident, Dan Hindle, is one of the original family members of the resort and is the manager of the on-mountain Same Sun Hostel, with over 120 beds, both dorm style and private rooms. As the website boasts, the Same Sun Silver Star Mountain Resort boasts the world’s first custom-built ski hostel on the entire planet.