Mountain Review: Silver Star
MOUNTAIN SCORE
CATEGORY BREAKDOWN
See our criteria
8
Snow:
8
Resiliency:
8
Size:
7
Terrain Diversity:
6
Challenge:
6
Lifts:
7
Crowd Flow:
6
Facilities:
4
Navigation:
6
Mountain Aesthetic:
GOOD TO KNOW
1-Day Ticket: $75-$116 USD ($103-$159 CAD)
Pass Affiliation: None (some partner resorts on season pass)
On-site Lodging: Yes
Aprés-ski: Limited
Nearest Cities: Kelowna (1 hr), Vancouver (5.5 hrs), Seattle (7 hrs)
Recommended Ability Level:
+ Pros
Family-friendly terrain
Vibrant ski-in/ski-out base village
Standout tree terrain, especially for intermediates
Lower crowds than other similarly-sized resorts
Value
– Cons
Unintuitive, traverse-heavy trail network
Lack of high-alpine bowl terrain
Shorter vertical drop than some competitors
Limited expert terrain
Ease of travel from most U.S. cities
MOUNTAIN STATS
Lifts: 12
Trails: 132
Beginner: 15%
Intermediate: 40%
Advanced/Expert: 45%
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Mountain Review
Located in Western Canada’s Monashee Mountains in the Okanagan region, Silver Star stands as a low-key alternative to better known resorts. The mountain’s modest vertical drop and family-friendly bent mean the resort won’t attract the same destination crowd as prominent fly-to areas. However, Silver Star’s vibrantly designed village, family-friendly terrain, and unique partial-upside-down setup make for an attractive proposition for the right groups.
Size and Terrain Layout
With a 3,000-acre footprint and 132 trails, Silver Star is by no means a small mountain. But while not bad, the resort’s 2,500-foot vertical drop doesn’t match the class-leading descents of Western Canada’s best resorts. Paired with a lack of high-alpine bowls and particularly iconic topography, Silver Star’s terrain feels rather ordinary compared to the competition.
However, Silver Star does offer a few traits that help it stand out, especially for those who aren’t from the region. The resort features a unique, partial-upside-down setup, with its Village Centre located about 60% of the way up. But this base village doesn’t just feel like any old commercialized complex—the whole development maintains a lively multi-color scheme that feels like it’s out of a movie.
And despite the buildup near the top, Silver Star’s lower-elevation areas conversely lack development—and still maintain picturesque views of the Monashee Mountains to the east. Finally, not all of Silver Star’s upper mountain is part of its village; the resort features a sizable back side that comprises about half of its terrain, and this area feels quite remote and removed from society.
Silver Star features a partial-upside-down layout, with a vibrantly-colored village about 60% of the way up.
Beginner Terrain
Silver Star is generally a beginner-friendly mountain, with green trails accessible off every lift. Visitors of this proficiency will appreciate the variety of gentle, well-groomed trails on the front side. Those who are just learning have their own dedicated learning area served by the Silver Queen lift, which is significantly isolated from other terrain zones. There’s also a bunny hill with a magic carpet for true first-timers right at the Village Centre.
However, there are a few situations beginners might find tricky. First off, getting out of the back side can be tough. The Last Chance trail from the top of the Powder Gulch Express lift is fairly flat, with some traversing required. While there’s a less strenuous egress route from the top of the back side, getting up there requires a ride up the Home Run Tee, a surface lift that less-experienced guests may not be used to.
Silver Star offers beginner trails off every lift, but it takes strenuous traversing to get between areas.
In addition, it’s somewhat of a pain to ski or ride from the Village Centre to the Alpine Meadows and Silver Queen lifts using exclusively green trails. The only beginner run that leads to this area is called Criss Cross, and it involves several flat, catwalky sections with a few mild uphill segments. It’s also easy to get really confused on this trail, as there are several misleading signs that make it seem like you’ve ended up with only intermediate and advanced trail options, even though you haven’t gone off track.
Making matters even more annoying, while the Silver Woods Express lift only tops out a few hundred feet away from Silver Queen, guests will need to go the roundabout way all the way to the summit and via the aforementioned Criss Cross trail to get there. If you’re a beginner but you’re not learning for the first time, it might be best to spend most of your time at the main frontside lifts.
TRAIL MAP
Intermediate Terrain
Silver Star offers an enjoyable intermediate footprint, and like with beginner terrain, the best trails for this ability level are generally located on the front side. Ample intermediate terrain exists off the Comet and Silver Woods Express lifts, and the resort especially stands out for generous intermediate-rated glade terrain in both areas. These trees span a range of different densities, making Silver Star a great mountain for glade progression and exploring different types of woods.
Silver Star’s back side also offers some high-quality intermediate terrain, including Eldorado, a three-and-a-half-mile-long trail that spans the full vertical drop of the resort (although only the bottom two-thirds are directly lappable). That said, a number of the blue runs directly served by the lifts do involve some mild flat terrain sections.
Silver Star offers a strong variety of intermediate terrain, including glade terrain of varying widths.
Terrain Parks
Silver Star’s front side is home to the resort’s three terrain parks. While not quite as built up as those at the best North American destinations, the resort’s freestyle setup is competitive for the region, with a range of boxes, rails, jumps, and specialty features such as wall rides to keep visitors engaged. Features range from small to extra-large in size.
Silver Star offers a range of advanced and expert runs on its remote back side.
Advanced and Expert Terrain
Silver Star may not be the most extreme mountain out there, but it does offer its fair share of advanced and expert terrain, especially on the back side. Single-black trails range between mogul runs, glades of varying widths, and even some groomers. Double-black trails exist solely on the back side, and they offer significantly steep, narrow fall lines that are somewhat reminiscent of the hardest trails at many good East Coast ski resorts. A large percentage of backside advanced and expert runs are fairly hidden off unassuming access trails, meaning they hold their snow well, even days after the last storm.
RECOMMENDED SKIS FOR SILVER STAR
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Recommended intermediate ski
Recommended advanced ski
Recommended glade ski
Recommended powder ski
Hike-to Backcountry Terrain
The back side also offers access to Silver Star’s only hike-to terrain, Alder Point. While technically not in bounds and a fifteen-minute catwalk away on nordic trails, this area is a great place to score some powder if it’s just snowed and the rest of the mountain is starting to get skied out. However, this area is not regularly patrolled, so be sure to go with a partner and bring proper backcountry equipment with you. In addition, the area faces south, so even if it’s still not tracked, the snow typically gets heavy after a day or two of no new accumulation.
The very steep, south-facing Alder Point backcountry zone takes a 15-minute catwalk on cross-country ski trails to reach.
Snow Quality and Conditions
Speaking of snow, Silver Star tends to see high-quality accumulation throughout a typical winter. Despite no snowmaking, the resort enjoys consistent snowfall that allows for a reliable season. While advanced and expert terrain can see thin cover during the earlier months, the resort is typically 100% open by early January. Silver Star doesn’t see quite the same amount of snowfall as some competing mountains further east, making for fewer true powder days, but snow comes consistently in moderate batches. Visibility tends to be a lot better than competing mountains with more exposed terrain, although fog can still occur. Silver Star is also one of the best wind-protected mountains in Western Canada, meaning it’s still reasonably reliable on storm days.
Silver Star offers consistent natural snow and generally moderate temperatures—although extreme cold spells can occur.
Temperatures
Like other Interior British Columbia mountains, Silver Star faces substantial cold spells around once or twice per year. During these times, temperatures can drop as low as -30°C (-22°F), making for particularly frigid slopes that very few folks will enjoy. Temperatures tend to be much more moderate during other parts of the winter season, but these cold spells are hard to predict and can last for a week or more, making an in-advance trip to Silver Star a bit of a roll of the dice.
In addition to its base village, Silver Star sports a modestly-sized lodge on its back side.
On-Mountain Facilities
If you end up at Silver Star on a particularly frigid day—or you just want an escape from the cold in general—the resort offers a few places to stop in for a break. In addition to the sizable Village Centre with dining complexes at both the main base and Silver Queen bunny hill, the resort sports a modestly-sized lodge on its back side. Other resorts have more widespread indoor lodges, but Silver Star does stand out with bathrooms at or near the bottom of every lift except Alpine Meadows.
RECOMMENDED SNOWBOARDS FOR SILVER STAR
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Recommended intermediate board
Recommended advanced board
Recommended expert board
Recommended powder board
Lifts
Silver Star’s lift fleet is generally modern, with high-speed uphill service in most key mountain zones. The resort features three detachable chairlifts, including one six-pack, and the recently installed Schumann Summit Express Gondola provides direct service from the main base village to the resort’s summit.
However, there are a few downsides. The Alpine Meadows lift, which provides the only real convenient access to the southernmost trails on the front side, is quite slow (although the ride is short enough to remain reasonably acceptable). In addition, there are a few places where it feels like chairlifts are just missing. The backside is home to approximately half of Silver Star’s terrain, yet it’s served by just a singular high-speed quad and a t-bar right above it. This means that it takes prolonged traversing to reach even moderately long runs, and to get to the overwhelming majority of runs in this area, guests will have to engage on the same access trails over and over again. To put this situation into perspective, access to over forty trails on the backside comes off of just three runs. It would be especially nice if there were another chairlift to directly serve the dozens of trails to the west of the Powder Gulch Express chair, and a second one decided to the trails east of this lift wouldn’t hurt either.
Silver Star’s lifts are generally modern, but especially on the back side, it feels like there should be more of them.
Ease of Navigation
Silver Star’s unintuitive village trail setup and traverse-heavy back side make it a less-than-fun mountain to get around. Unless sticking to specific trails directly off of the lifts that serve them, guests should come prepared to traverse a lot throughout the day. Signage is clear, but some of the markings are misleading, either pointing to trails that don’t start for several hundred feet, failing to clearly highlight the run one is on, or omitting important details. Perhaps most annoyingly, if one tries to get the Village Centre directly from the top of the Silver Woods lift, the trail involves crossing over an active roadway—and there is no signage to warn about this circumstance, which can be both stressful and confusing. For snowboarders, the high frequency of required catwalking may outweigh the benefits brought by a well-designed terrain park.
One of the main trail routes back to the base village involves crossing an active roadway—and the resort does not provide any signage warning of the impending circumstance.
Crowds
At least after all that traversing, guests typically won’t have to wait in lines for that long. The resort’s remote location and primarily local clientele means it doesn’t see nearly the same amount of traffic as typical destination-goers might be used to. The weird lift setup does mean that the Powder Gulch lift on the backside can be a chokepoint, but even on peak holidays, waits of longer than 20 minutes are rare.
Silver Star’s remote location and primarily local clientele means it doesn’t see nearly the same degree of crowds as typical destination-goers might be used to.
Night Skiing
From mid-December to mid-March, Silver Star offers night skiing on a fraction of its terrain until 8:30pm on Friday and Saturday nights. During these times, the resort operates its Schumann Gondola, Silver Queen lift, and bunny hill magic carpet. Included in night skiing is a modestly-sized terrain park. The night skiing footprint isn’t the largest out there, but it’s a solid option for those who want to get a few weekend laps in after the sun goes down.
Getting There and Parking
With no traffic, Silver Star is just under an hour from the Kelowna airport, and about half an hour from the town of Vernon. Several shuttle services run to and from the resort, as well as between the mountain and both downtown Kelowna and Vernon. Unlike some destination regions, serious traffic to the resort is rare, and free parking is readily available.
Silver Star offers plenty of on-site lodging, with slopeside condos spread across its upper mountain.
Lodging
One of Silver Star’s biggest assets is its extensive ski-in/ski-out on-mountain village. The resort offers a number of hotels and vacation home rentals just steps from the lifts, and while not bargain-basement, rates are substantially cheaper than slope side hotels at competing destinations.
For truly economical options, guests can find plenty of inns 30 minutes down the road in Vernon.
Aprés-ski
Silver Star is much more of a family-oriented mountain than a party town, and despite its extensive village, there isn’t really much of a nightlife scene. Guests will find a handful of restaurants and pubs onsite, but if you’re looking for a truly lively atmosphere, there are a lot better options out there.
While not the liveliest base village out there, Silver Star’s Village Centre features a number of bars and restaurants.
Verdict
Silver Star doesn’t offer quite the same terrain diversity as several Western Canada competitors, and ease of navigation could use some work. But the resort stands out with one of the most accessible ski-in/ski-out setups on the continent, diverse tree skiing, especially for intermediates, and regional crowds on a 3,000-acre footprint.
Pricing
Lift tickets top out around $159 CAD, or $116 USD with today’s exchange rates, but they go for as low as $103 CAD ($75 USD) on off-peak weekdays. Depending on when you go, Silver Star can be a solid value for what you get.
Sierra-at-Tahoe will become the second Tahoe destination—and the first on the south side of the lake—to join the Ikon Pass starting this winter.