Ryan M.
Yelp
Came here with big hopes of all the champaign power that everyone talks about, but alas i had all blue bird days. Sunny skies, temperatures in the 30s and 40s, no new snow. Despite all that i had a blast. The runs are well planned out, there are not many cat track areas which kills me at other places, in fact probably the least cat track areas of any resort i can think of.
The mornings were kind of icy so it was best to go out after 9:30 or so to let the ice melt a bit and let other people break up the hard pack. After that it was smooth riding, late in the day it got a bit slushy but no more than what you get in California.
This is a great resort for families, there were a bunch of them and my brother brought his kid to try snowboarding for the first time. I'd say its a great intermediate mountain. Most of the green runs are equal to shallow blue runs, i think its a Canadian thing, though the Blue runs are still basically the same, but with maybe some steeper parts. The runs here seem to be set up much better and are very enjoyable, i spent very little effort and boarded for 5 days straight, with a bunch of stretching of course!
The way to ride the mountain at least on sunny blue bird days (which I'm told is not the norm) is as you look at the map, start on the Right side in the morning then work your way to the Left, thats the way the sun hits the mountain, so you want to go where the sun has melted the ice a bit. When its white out or powder conditions, i have no clue, i have not experienced that yet.
I did make it over to the Gem Lake side in the afternoon, and there were some epic runs there but there was also a long cat track at one point which i disliked so i stayed clear of it after that.
If you can make it up the T bar, it was a nice long run thats not too steep or too shallow, perfect for intermediate riders, its like the rest of the mountain but i guess less people go up the T bar so its a bit less untouched.
Over all i really liked my experience here, better than Whistler actually. The runs were well set up, i booked a shuttle to and from the airport, an hour ride from the Kelowna airport. I talked to a bunch of people on the lifts and many of them go every year, and i can see why.