1889 Feb | March 2018

northwest destination
Blake Jorgenson/SilverStar Mountain Resort
Blake Jorgenson/SilverStar Mountain Resort
Usain Bolt dashing down the track.
The hips, legs and arms are in tacit
agreement of co-efficiency, creating
a state that drives equal and opposite
reaction. While others are skating off
in perverse angles, I’m connecting the
shortest distance between two points on
a narrow, straight path.
There must be something about
symmetry that appeals to me. Leonardo da
Vinci put his image of the perfect human
body inside a circle and a square, casting
symmetry as beauty and perfection in
his homage to ancient Greek architect
Marcus Vitruvius. (“I’m talking about
classical proportions, perfect symmetry
and ideal conditioning,” Vitruvius may
have said.) Though no sober mind, nor
that of my elite-skiing, analytical and
critical wife, would conflate my form
with perfection, symmetry and its
companions—zen and happiness—are
lifelong pursuits of the classic school.
Speed, my wife would argue, is a much
more distant cousin.
Symmetry, nonetheless, is a liquid
state that takes the shape of its container.
After two hours, my container was less
symmetrical, and I could feel the slosh of
things throwing me off balance. Hot tubs
are a good way to re-center.
Of course, SilverStar is more than a
vast platform for cross-country skiing. Its
eleven lifts serve 132 marked runs from
beginner to expert. Freestyle skiers and
snowboarders can hone their tricks in a
terrain park. An outdoor skating rink on
Brewers Pond brings out hockey players
and recreational skaters.
The village of SilverStar has 5,600
pillows throughout its nine hotels and
lodges, and eighteen food and beverage
venues and multiple retail and rental
shops. My favorite is Bugaboos Bakery
Café, a strudel-lover’s lair from Dutchborn
baker Frank Berkers. In the air, the
scents of cinnamon, chocolate and coffee
mix with spoken accents of French, Dutch,
Australian, German and Canadian.
On any given day, I can easily spend
four hours at Bugaboos working,
partaking of pastry, drinking end-to-end
Americanos and listening to the banter of
non-Americanos.
For two years in a row, we’ve stumbled
into The Red Antler for dinner on
Wednesday’s half-price wing night.
This is a sooey call to all of the resort’s
workers, so go early and leave early. The
Red Antler has good Canadian pub grub
that includes poutine and a lamb burger
along with local meats and cheeses.
The local beer isn’t quite on par with
the craftsmanship of Washington and
Oregon, but it’s on its way.
The people of Sovereign Lake Nordic
Centre take their cross-country skiing and
biathlon seriously. With 105 kilometers
of trails and a communal lodge at its
center, Sovereign is known as the largest
continuously groomed network of trails
in Canada. The lodge has restrooms, a
fire stove and tables for eating lunch. Out
back is the ski stadium, a large clearing
where races start and finish. Not far from
the parking lot is a biathlon target area. I
can spend days on Sovereign’s meticulous
groomers and ski until my symmetry
wanes with the falling sun.
Each March, Sovereign Lake Nordic
Centre hosts a 30k freestyle loppet race
for the recreational competitive skier.
The so-called loppet series comes from
the Worldloppet Ski Federation, which
84 1889 WASHINGTON’S MAGAZINE FEBRUARY | MARCH 2018