Silver Star Bike Park

Just finished an amazing 2 days at Silver Star Resort located just 25km east of Vernon, BC. We rolled into the Bulldog Hotel Monday afternoon and were pleasantly surprised with a two bedroom apartment in the center of the village. We’ve been to the Bulldog in Amsterdam before and really like the vibe and character of the hotel and cafe.

Our good friend Terry Leimonis flew out to Kelowna from Toronto on Monday to join us for the next week of our trip and we are stoked to have him along for the ride.

We got up and at it early Tuesday morning and with a baby sitter lined up for the day we were all anxious to get out and hit the trails. We met up with Ian Galbraith the Summer Business Manager at Silver Star to get set up with passes, bikes and give us a tour of the mountain. He also hooked Holden up with a stuffed Silver Fox toy which he refuses to let go of now. We really appreciated the hospitality of Ian and everyone on his team throughout our stay there.

Norco A-Line Park bikes are the rental of choice at Silver Star and were well spec’d with Boxxers, Fox Van R shock, Sram X7 and Kenda Nevegal tires. I took one for lap and Amberlea rode one all day and was really happy with its performance in a variety of terrain.

It’s high-speed 6-pack lift provides access to 490m/1600′ of descent and we never had to wait more than a minute in the queue. With 18 trails to chose from Silver Star is best know for its fast and flowy berms and table top jumps. It definitely has has plenty of those but we discovered the lesser seen side of Silver Star, old school technical downhill trails.

Trails like Shazam and Super Star were Amberlea’s favourites for their top to bottom berms and jumps. She felt like she was really able to progress her cornering and pumping skills throughout the day and bang off 7 runs.

Amberlea has taken the last 2 years off riding with the birth of our son so it has been really great to see her build her confidence and skills back up. We rode together for the morning and she was able to split off and ride with another girl she met on the hill in the morning.

For those wanting to send it on larger jumps and rail 6 foot tall berms the trail Rock Star is happy to oblige. Here Terry gets his boost on 5000′ above the the Okanagan.

It has been a very wet summer up here but the flora is loving it and as the trails weave from forest to meadow and the alpine wild flowers in full bloom provided a beautiful palette of color.

After a morning warming up and finding the flow we went exploring looking for more technical terrain. We started with World Cup which was actually the 1994 World Cup course and had a blast railing the huge wall rides, DH style jumps and steep rooty switchbacks. We found some of the tech we were looking for in Dag’s Downhill, Downtown & Double Dog. Each of these trails take advantage of the natural rock features and we had an awesome time picking our way through some really rowdy terrain.

We had a fantastic time at Silver Star and found their Bike Park to offer a great mix of terrain for all levels of riders. We look forward to coming back again soon.

Lift Ticket Price: $39/day + tax
Bike Rental Price: $90/day + tax

Jer’s Favourite Trail: Rock Star
Amberlea’s Favourite Trail: Shazam

www.skisilverstar.com