Silver Star Mountain Resort

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A destination ski resort where you can afford to 'do it all'

If there's one thing Canadian Freestyle Ski Association member and Olympic hopeful Noah Morrison likes doing, it's coming home. That's because home is Silver Star Mountain Resort at Vernon, B.C., which Morrison rates among the best in North America. He ought to know; in recent years, he and his dad have logged 35,000 kilometres in a minivan, visiting as many as 50 ski resorts for competitions.

"I just love coming home and skiing with friends," Morrison says, adding that Silver Star's Rockstar terrain park – with all its jumps and rails – is a good place for both training and having fun. "They did a really good job designing it; it's spread out so there's lots of room, and the snow is very good."

Skiing at Silver Star dates back to the 1930s when local Bert Thorburn used to ride his bike to the treeline and then start hiking. Today, 12 lifts serve 115 runs on two mountains with four distinct ski areas, making it feel like four resorts in one.

Silver Star's Vance Creek area offers a variety of beginner and advanced runs, while nearby Attridge offers a wealth of gladed and groomed runs. Recently developed Silver Woods is rich with intermediate and tree runs, while those looking for steep and thrilling have to look no further than the Putnam Creek area. It's the kind of place where you can stand at the top of runs feeling like a sky diver, says marketing projects coordinator Doug Chimuk. Pick a line and yell "Geronimo" because within seconds the wind is whistling past your ears and knee-deep snow is cascading by.

"Everybody thinks of us as a family mountain, and we are," Chimuk says. "But we also have one of the largest advanced ski areas in the west. Putnam Creek is a local secret that's really just being discovered. The snow is deep and dry, and there's lots of it. It's got 54 runs of black and double black on 1,900 acres, and there are never any lineups; I've heard people say it's like having chairlift access to heli-skiing quality runs."

New this year at Silver Star is the "The Zone" just outside the village. It includes an expanded and improved Learning Zone complete with a carpet lift, gentle slopes and a variety of progression areas. There's also the Jib Zone, designed to introduce budding acrobats to rails and jumps, while the Air Zone allows anybody of any age to try any kind of trick because landings are in a giant airbag.

Silver Star also has a cozy intimacy that makes it appealing to families, from the western-style architecture down to the horse-drawn sleigh that glides through town, bells tinkling in the gently falling snow that replenishes the hill for the next day's adventures. Little touches accentuate the feeling: skating is on a frozen pond complete with a little island, snowshoeing is on forest trails lined with snow-covered Christmas trees. And in an effort to make it easier and less expensive for visitors to "do it all," Silver Star has introduced My1Pass, allowing all-inclusive access to downhill skiing, tubing, skating and 55 kilometres of groomed Nordic trails.

Silver Star is also offering heli-skiiing for the first time in 2013. Powder hounds will be able to access 117,000 acres of it in the spectacular Monashee Mountains.