BC Christmas Vacation

I'm starting to plan a vacation in Canada over Christmas. I'm leaning
toward checking out the ski/boarding areas around Kelowna BC - Silver
Star, Big White, Crystal Mountain, maybe Apex. We haven't been there
before, so I'm looking for advice.

We will be there for a week around Christmas / New Years. The plan is
to stay for 3 days at Silver Star resort, and to stay 4 or 5 days in
Kelowna, with the idea we could drive to Big White and Crystal Mountain.

Some questions for those who know:

1) Is Christmas too early to plan this trip? No guarantees of course,
but is the snow decent that early in the season?

2) Where is a good place to stay at Silver Star? Or, is staying at the
resort a bad idea? Would staying in Vernon be better?

3) Recommendations for a decent hotel in Kelowna or vicinity? It will
be my wife, my son (20), and me.

4) Which mountains are good for boarding? My son and I board, my wife
skis. Any descriptions of the various mountains appreciated.

5) Any other advice would be great.

Thanks, Randy

On Fri, 22 Oct 2004 00:36:13 GMT, RR allegedly
wrote:

1) Is Christmas too early to plan this trip? No guarantees of
course, but is the snow decent that early in the season?

I can't comment on the other questions, as I've not been to the Kelowna
area yet. However, I've been to other areas in BC over xmas, and once
I've had crappy conditions with limited runs open, twice I've been when
there's a reasonable base, but no new snow, and a few times it's been
great all round. I think xmas 97 was the best, and xmas 99 the worst, if
my brain is function correctly.

- Dave.

--
The only powder to get high on, falls from the sky.
http://www.vpas.org/ - Snowboarding the worlds pow pow -
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RR wrote:
3) Recommendations for a decent hotel in Kelowna or vicinity? It will
be my wife, my son (20), and me.

If you're only going to be 4 days, why not just stay on the mountain?
There's lots of condos to rent (try going through owner direct or other
similar services) and the mountain is more than enough to keep you busy
for that time. I've never even heard of Crystal Mountain.

4) Which mountains are good for boarding? My son and I board, my wife
skis. Any descriptions of the various mountains appreciated.

Big White (Kelowna) is snowboarder heaven. Tons of snow, lots of
natural hits, great tree runs. There's also quite a bit of groomed if
you want to pull some Gs. It's a fabulous hill.

Neil