Silver Star Mountain Snow Ghosts
At the summit of Silver Star Mountain, BC, Canada
Fujifilm GFX 50R, GF 50mm f/3.5 R LM WR @ f/5.6, Moment CineBloom 5% diffusion filter
Returning to Silver Star Mountain
My cousin, Uffe, was visiting from Denmark and mentioned he would love to do a road trip to Silver Star Mountain. For years he had been envious when we bombarded him with photos from “our” spectacular ski resort.
We lived in the foothills of Silver Star Mountain for almost twenty years and worked at the ski hill for almost as long. This was our daily playground and the scene of numerous adventures. We watched our kids grow up on skis and have many great memories to cherish.
I was thrilled that my cousin wanted to go to Silver Star and was proud to show it off.
The giant snow ghosts at the summit of Silver Star Mountain, BC, Canada
Fujifilm GFX 50R, GF 50mm f/3.5 R LM WR @ f/9, Moment CineBloom 5% diffusion filter
Cross Country and Downhill Skiing
On the first day, we opted for a quick cross-country ski along “Sidewinder”, a trail I have done many times before, often after work hours. We were both on skate skies and despite the fact it was Uffe’s first time on skate skies and my first ski in a couple of years, we survived the ordeal.
It was wonderful to be on the trails again and as it started snowing we were getting excited about downhill skiing the following day. We met a few locals on the trails who all seemed to be skiing a bit faster than us but we had a few good laughs and were never short on excuses.
My cousin Uffe struck an appropriate pose on the cross-country ski trails at Silver Star Mountain.
Friends
Returning to Vernon and Silver Star is not only about skiing. It also gives us a chance to catch up with old friends. For the first night, we stayed and had a wonderful dinner with our friends, the Fanfanis in Vernon, and then stayed for two nights with our friends Ross and Amanda at Silver Star, where we also met Bernie and Sattu for a great dinner and caught up with wonderful wine sampling and great conversation.
Uffe rented skis and I rented boots and the service was great at the resort. Uffe switched skis a couple of times and I needed to downsize my boots. No problems though.
The two Byskov cousin amigos on the cross-country ski trails at Silver Star Mountain
Snow Conditions
As I type this Silver Star Mountain has a base of 240 cm or close to 8 feet of snow. The snowfall so far this year is almost 7 meters or 23 feet. Conditions earlier this winter caused snow to melt in the trees at the summit and hereafter they had a ton of snow resulting in some of the most impressive-looking snow ghosts in years.
It was a stunning sight indeed. At the summit, we were completely in awe and dwarfed by the giant trees covered in heavy layers of snow.
Trees bending from the weight of the snow at the summit of Silver Star Mountain
Fujifilm GFX 50R, GF 50mm f/3.5 R LM WR @ f/8, Moment CineBloom 5% diffusion filter
My cousin, Uffe, cutting tracks near the summit of Silver Star Mountain Resort
Fujifilm X-H2, XF 56mm f/1.2 R WR @ f/3.6
Ski Conditions
We started the morning doing some of the blue runs from the Silver Woods Express and couldn’t believe our luck. Uffe stated it was some of the best snow he had ever skied. Only a couple of weeks earlier he had skied in Italy and it is a well-known fact that Europe has been struggling with snow conditions this year.
We continued on to some of the easier runs from the Comet Express and in the afternoon ventured to the backside and hit some of the steeper runs from the Power Gulch Express.
At the summit of Silver Star Mountain, BC, Canada
Fujifilm GFX 50R, GF 50mm f/3.5 R LM WR @ f/8, Moment CineBloom 5% diffusion filter
On day two we stuck to the front side as our legs admittedly were getting a bit tired after skiing in all of this wonderful fresh powder. We met up with Amanda and Bill for a couple of runs. Unfortunately, there was a bit of cloud cover when we skied the summit and captured the photos of the snow ghosts you see in this post.
We stopped for an obligatory coffee and refreshment from Bugaboos Bakery and for the final few runs we skied at the Silver Woods Express chair until the lift closed. The snow kept falling and it felt like we had a fresh inch of snow for each run we did. Not bad at all.
At the summit of Silver Star Mountain, BC, Canada
Fujifilm GFX 50R, GF 50mm f/3.5 R LM WR @ f/5.6, Moment CineBloom 5% diffusion filter
We enjoyed a well-deserved 1516 Okanagan Spring Lager at Long John’s where I got a chance to quickly say hi to an old friend, John Earle.
Great to see everyone at Silver Star again a treat to be able to share it all with my cousin.
Skiing “Milky Way” to Silver Star Mountain resort below
Fujifilm GFX 50R, GF 50mm f/3.5 R LM WR @ f/4, Moment CineBloom 5% diffusion filter
The photos in this post are made using the following photography gear and editing tools.
Links to my reviews:
Fujifilm GFX 50R
Fujifilm GF 50mm f/3.5 R LM WR
Fujifilm X-H2
Fujifilm XF 56mm f/1.2 R WR
Moment CineBloom Diffusion Filters
Fujifilm Acros Film Simulation
