Mother Nature has been kind to Okanagan skiers this year.
Unusually heavy early season snowfall delivered a strong opening day for Nordic skiing at Silver Star on Friday.
“This amount of snow is typical early to mid-December for us,” said Silver Star’s Nordic Manager Shane Landreville.
Athletes are especially happy about what the snowy conditions mean for their training regimes.
Skier Maya Jonas came to the area to take advantage of the plentiful early season snow.
Her coach was worried they’d be forced to do dryland training but with all the white stuff that hasn’t been the case.
The aspiring Paralympian from North Vancouver has been able to get in the altitude training she wanted ahead of her first World Cup event in a few weeks.
“It’s brilliant, just brilliant. We expected to be running up and down the centre of the village just on concrete or grass,” Jonas’ coach Jerry King said.
“It’s like mid-season conditions for us. Good for her preparation.”
As Nordic skiers enjoy the snow, downhill enthusiasts will have to wait until next week to hit the slopes in the Okanagan.