Dec 20 Update Skiing and Winter

We took a break from the house this week, and went skiing at Silverstar in Vernon for a couple of days.  Silverstar is about a 3 ½ hour drive from here, but we had bought season’s passes on sale while we were in Vernon, expecting to live there.  Since there were no refunds, we decided to grin and bear it.  This worked out to be a better decision than we first thought.

Silverstar has fabulous snow and fabulous long runs.  In Moonstone, we could do 5 or 6 runs in an hour, including chair time.  Here we can maybe do two runs in an hour.  And there are 132 different trails!

The mountain is well managed, with good signage explaining all the trails.

Even the facilities have good signage.

Seasons Pass holders get a private lunchroom and lockers for themselves, so there is a place to retreat even with the worst crowds.

As is usual in the Okanagan, everyone talks to each other, and helps each other out.  All we needed to do was say aloud “It would be nice to get a picture of the two of us with this sign”, and the fellow beside us offered to help.

The village is lively but not overly commercial, but as you can see it was snowing fairly heavily when we decided to leave.

As usual, by the time we arrived back in Osoyoos, whatever snow they got had melted, and the temperature was about 0 Celsius.  Up the hill there is more snow, but the daytime temperatures are just below 0, so this is not hard to take.

At our level, we find it not uncommon to be in the cloud, but one unexpected benefit of that is that we get spectacular hoar frost on everything.

And when the sun comes out, all the hoar frost disappears.  (You will probably get sick of these pictures…)

In the meantime, we have embarked on a giddy social life in this community.  Neighbours invited us over for drinks on Friday night, where we met three more couples.  There is a very strong community association here, and Sunday featured a potluck dinner at the local fire hall, with 140 people in attendance.  There were door prizes, raffles, and lots of good community updates provided by the fire chief and his deputy.  In a place where wildfires are a fact of life, we are lucky to have such a dedicated volunteer crew, all 32 of them.

Tonight we have over the two real estate agents responsible for the sale/purchase of this house, and their spouses, so this will be a lively evening.  No wonder there are so few blog updates!