‘Canada’s Napa Valley’ Is a Greatest-kept Winter Secret—Tips on how to Go to

It is a bluebird day at Solar Peaks Resort, and the solar is illuminating the now drooping snow ghosts that line the blue runs I have been snowboarding all morning. I’ve simply caught the West Bowl Categorical, newly opened this 12 months, and I am about to plunge into the pillowy powder that has fallen over the weekend. The perfect half? I did not even have to attend in line.

This under-the-radar ski hamlet is tucked right into a nook of the Okanagan, simply accessible from Kelowna in British Columbia, with new direct flights from Seattle and Los Angeles and extra connections to Kamloops and Penticton airports. It’s right here that I start my sojourn by means of this lesser-known western Canadian winter wonderland, wandering by means of a ski-in/ski-out village so charming it appears as if it was plucked from the slopes of northern Italy, studying to huck an axe at Cleavage Axe Co. whereas sipping domestically brewed beer, and salivating over recent, crusty bread slathered in creamy fondue at Solar Peaks’ restaurant Fondue Stube.

With greater than 4,000 acres of skiable terrain, 2,900 toes of skiable vertical descent, and a 10-acre terrain park, there’s one thing for each stage right here, with 13 lifts unfold throughout three peaks (the area receives 23 toes of snowfall yearly). The accessibility of the terrain additionally makes it an ideal place for households to get pleasure from a winter trip on the slopes. And, after a day of snowboarding, a plethora of different frosty actions await, from snow tubing to horse-drawn sleigh rides to watching the sundown from the heat of a sizzling tub.

I select to snowshoe beneath the celebrities with Uncover Solar Peaks Adventures, the nippiness warded off by me and my native information’s brisk strides by means of stiff snow, our breath rising in steamy puffs that shimmer within the frigid air. I sip sizzling cider subsequent to a pine-scented bonfire within the shadow of the forest and admire how the city lights solid a gentle glow on the beckoning ski hill earlier than leaping off path to check out my snowshoes in a deep drift of snow.

The following morning, a 2.5-hour drive brings me to Sovereign Lake for a lesson in Nordic snowboarding. The 65 miles of freshly groomed cross-country ski tracks—the biggest every day groomed cross-country path community in Canada—crisply reduce their means throughout the bleached panorama, whereas a wide range of snowshoe trails wind their means by means of powder puff bushes. The day is heat and the one sound to interrupt up the satisfying swish of my kick-stride-glide method is the occasional whoomph of a bit of snow falling off a department.

A ski path connects the Sovereign Lake Nordic Membership to SilverStar Mountain Resort, one other one among British Columbia’s largest downhill ski areas, providing 3,000-plus acres of skiable terrain, a 2,500-feet vertical drop, and greater than 275 inches of annual snowfall. And, if Solar Peaks appears like a small slice of northern Italy, the village right here will make you are feeling as if you’ve been transported again to the gold rush. There’s no have to don a corset beneath your ski gear, nonetheless, because the facilities are slick and fashionable, with 10 lifts, together with an eight-seat gondola and a six-pack categorical chairlift.

The hill, famend for its “mellow frontside and bushy bottom” receives a number of inches of recent snow within the morning. The resort’s pleasant and educated Snow Hosts give me a grand tour of the resort, and whereas I’ll not have the ability to discover my means round simply but, I dive into the recent powder that leaves me actually—and figuratively—floating.

If snowboarding isn’t your factor, the resort remains to be a haven for winter exercise: ice skate throughout Brewer’s Pond, situated within the coronary heart of the village, go tubing at Tube City, or fats bike or snowshoe on a wide range of trails and loops that skirt the sting of the ski hill.

Within the night, as a substitute of a taxi, catch the Paradise Categorical snowcat to Paradise Camp, situated straight on the ski hill, for a three-course connoisseur dinner served subsequent to a crackling fireplace. Or, jive to dwell music at Lengthy John’s Pub. Canada’s highest artwork gallery, Gallery Odin—a personal modern assortment that options Western Canadian artists—may also be discovered right here.

I full my Okanagan winter explorations with a return to the city bustle in Kelowna. Whereas the world, often known as “Canada’s Napa Valley,” is famend for its award-winning wineries, make sure to get up first with a espresso tasting at Craft 42 Roasters. Breathe within the scent of freshly roasted, ethically sourced espresso beans earlier than immersing your self in tales of the land from the individuals who have been right here first on the Sncewips Heritage Museum. Then, sip wine with out the summer time crowds on the sweeping Mission Hill Household Property vineyard, just lately awarded 100 factors for his or her 2020 Oculus purple, the primary in Canada.

My thirst slaked, I do know extra world-class snowboarding awaits me at Massive White Ski Resort, however first, I discover myself on the steely grey fringe of Okanagan Lake. It’s not fairly 7 a.m. and daybreak is just simply starting to interrupt over the sugar-dusted hills surrounding the lake. The one sound to be heard this early within the morning is the light lap of water because it caresses the facet of the dock the place the Finnish-style Löyly Floating Sauna lies.

It’s the proper place to reset my weary muscle tissue after per week of snowboarding, fats biking, and snowshoeing. I immerse my physique for 2 minutes in a chilly plunge pool, fed straight by the lake, earlier than enjoyable within the warmth of the dry sauna. Simply the look of the obsidian water of the chilly plunge pool makes me shiver, the destructive temperature nipping at my uncovered pores and skin.

I take a deep breath and soar in.