Silver Summit, Alberta facts for kids

Silver Summit is a fun place to ski and snowboard in Yellowhead County, Alberta, Canada. It's about 50 kilometers (31 miles) north of the town of Edson. You can find it right off Highway 748.

Silver Summit has three different ways to get up the mountain. There's a double chairlift, which is like a moving bench you sit on. There's also a T-Bar, which pulls you up while you stand on your skis or snowboard. For beginners, there's a Rope Tow that helps you learn the basics.

The ski area has seventeen different trails for you to explore. These trails are rated by how difficult they are. Seven trails are "green," meaning they are easy and great for beginners. Three trails are "blue," which are a bit harder for intermediate skiers. Finally, seven trails are "black," which are the most challenging for advanced skiers.

History of Silver Summit

How Silver Summit Started

Silver Summit was first thought of in the early 1960s. A group of local business people, including Paul Melhus from Edmonton, wanted to create a ski hill. They saw a need for a place to ski that wasn't in the big Canadian Rockies mountains.

New Owners and Ski Jumps

In 1969, a German man named Rick Damm bought the ski resort. He used to be a ski jumper, which is a sport where people ski down a ramp and then fly through the air.

In 1984, Silver Summit built a special area for ski jumping. It had three different jump hills, called K15, K30, and K50. These numbers show how far a jumper is expected to land from the takeoff point. These hills followed special rules set by the International Ski Federation (FIS).

The ski jumping area at Silver Summit opened in October 1984. For a while, it was the only ski jumping place in Alberta. Later, Canada Olympic Park in Calgary also built a ski jumping facility. Even though the big ski jump towers at Silver Summit are gone now, the small tower where the judges used to sit is still there.