Canada - saloons and sleighs

By SANDRA HOFFMAN

Rays of sun pierce through cloud, the temperature is just below freezing point.

Suddenly a crowd of skiers surges on to the main street in Silver Star, British Columbia, dressed only in bathing suits. They are the resort's seasonal workers.

"I hardly ever have the time to go skiing. I only start late in the season when things are less busy," says Frank Berkers, a Dutchman.

Berkers is one of the 125 inhabitants of Silver Star, which he describes as a "mixture between Disneyland and old Victorian style".

All the wooden houses in the village have to be painted at least four different colours, ordained the planners of the resort, which is reminiscent of an old Western town.

The ski school could be the sheriff's office, and the Day Lodge, a meeting point for day visitors, has saloon-style swing doors. But the pistes are more mild west than Wild West. Most of the slopes are gentle and ideal for families with children. Off-piste, there is plenty for children, too.

Tube Town, a toboggan-run rollercoaster using large tyres, is for the lazy. You simply lie in your tyres while a lift carries you up the mountain.

The world's largest snow rollercoaster is in Big White, one of the small skiing towns that is inhabited throughout the year.

Big White is never short of snow, which is drier and more powdery here than in any other part of Canada. It falls in large crystals that seem almost too perfect to be true.

Although most of the pistes are prepared, some slopes are left in their original condition.

The shuttle bus from Big White to Sun Peaks, the third resort in BC Ski Country, takes around five hours.

Once a village, it has grown rapidly in the past few years. Nature is being pushed back but it is far from tamed.

"When I go hiking here in summer, I always attach a bell to my wrist," said Nancy Greene, Olympic ski champion in 1968 and owner of a hotel in Sun Peaks.

There are still many brown bears in the forests surrounding the resort. They can be dangerous if you accidentally come across one. But if they are warned by the ringing of the bell, they disappear into the woods, Greene explains.

Probably no one knows the 90 ski slopes of this region better than Greene. The slopes have names, such as Last Chance, Toilet Bowl or Fifth Avenue. The piste caterpillar drivers have a similarly intimate relationship to the mountains.

Tourists can travel on the vehicles, which are named cat trax, and waltz slowly up the mountains.

When the vehicles seem almost to stand vertical, you can see how steep some of the slopes really are. Nearly an hour later you climb exhausted out of the vehicle - next morning you can ski down the freshly prepared pistes again.DPA

* Air Canada, Air New Zealand and United Airlines offer fares from Auckland to Vancouver starting from $2260. Air Canada also offers Ski'n'Board air fares when booking a package to Silver Star, and provide a connecting service to Kelowna, the nearest airport to Silver Star resort.

For more information on skiing in Canada and to receive your a 28-page Ski'n'Board Canada book call 0800 CANADA.


www.sunpeaksresort.com

www.bigwhite.com

www.skisilverstar.com