Road Trip - Revelstoke Mountain & Rogers Pass

J Dogg — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 01:09:57 -0500

Rating

If money grew on trees, the Revelstoke roadtrip would have made us filthy rich. Pockets stuffed to the brim, shirt stuffed like a pregnant lady, and a trail of fifties and hundee's tracing our every step. If witches are truly made of wood like folklore has it, bet there's a hell of a lot of those chasing us too. And if the slang 'woody' came from anywhere...

OK I'll stop there.

What do these all have in common? Woods, or trees to be precise. Lots of them. 5000 steep feet of them, in every direction. Scattered with pillows, gulleys, chutes, and more. Found only at the brand spankin' new Revelstoke Mountain Resort.

Sure small resorts all over BC have'em. But Revelstoke isn't small, far from it. We're talking small mountain feel, small mountain crowds, and the biggest vert in North America once the gondola is finished.

So on our usual hunt for witches, cash, and woodies, we packed the Subaru and b-lined for Revelstoke. We hadn't checked the forecast but new we didn't have to. It's been an epic season to kick off the new resort's history, with 2 meters in the week leading up to our a trip, and a welcome 15 cm dusting with bluebird skies to start off our weekend.

Up we went up the looooong gondi, up their first highspeed chair, and over to 'North Bowl', just like we'd been instructed, and it didn't dissapoint. The zone is packed with chutes, gulleys, trees, small cliffs, and a few biggies worthy of Jamie Pierre visit. Plenty of pow to go around, even on what happened to be the busiest day the new resort had seen yet, by far. Twice as busy as they'd anticipated, even putting opening day to shame. Seems the cat's out of the bag, and the chairlifts planned for the next few years won't be going to waste.

Day 2 the bluebirds were even bluer, with an inversion that cleared the skis as far as we could see. And that's when the druling problem started. Snow stability wasn't great that week, but our minds did enough wandering to wet the bed time and time again. The ridges below Critical Summit leading down to next year's chairlift look out of control. The lift accessed touring to Montana Bowl and the other areas above the cat skiing operation are in easy grabbing distance and all worth the tour.

Speaking of touring... no Revelstoke road trip is complete without a 45minute drive up the road to the infamous Rogers Pass... aka the best easiest touring spot you'll ever find.

Not yet through with the taste of pillows and trees that Revelstoke Mountain Resort had wet our appetities with, we spent our sunny pow day in Rogers pass doing laps in the Puffy Daddy area of Hermit Ridge. 3000ft pillow lines, untracked from top to bottom, within 100ft of the parking lot... on the busiest ski weekend of the season. Better than heliskiing - but for free - does that count as finding money on trees? Not too shabby at all, and only 45 minutes away from our base in Revelstoke.

So with cash and woodys under our belt, I mean woods, where were the witches? ...they're coming. Migrating to Revelstoke, one by one, from popular ski resorts around Canada and the Pacific North West, keen skiers and riders are gathering here to be a part of something new. Legends of what Revelstoke has to offer have been spreading like wildfire.

You've got the early believers who moved before it opened, like Jay & Tasha, Whistler's GLC expats who shipped out 3 years ago to open 'The Great White North' restaurant and bar in the middle of nowhere out side of town, only to now be killing it as the place to be for dinner and drinks. Or Paul 'Bones' Skelton, heading up the whole resort and making the dream a reality. Or Pontiac World of Skiing poster boy and man of mystery Joe Lammers drifting from Whistler to head up patrol with a clean slate and a brand new mountain to challenge and tame. Or the young Rocky Mountain Freeride Club rippers doing laps around me all weekend.

Revelstoke Moutain Resort isn't the next big thing. It already is big, and always has been. A big mountain with big vert, just minutes away from some of the best cat skiing, heli skiing, sled skiing, and backcountry skiing in North America.

Save a few leaves from your money tree, walk among the witches, check out Revelstoke Mountain Revelstoke, and enjoy the, uh, woods.

Details & Links
Revelstoke Mountain Resort
Snow Report
Snowphone -250.837.7389
Selkirk Tangiers Heliskiing
Revelstoke Cat Skiing

Doglotion.com - Freeskiing Community - opening season

Road Trip - Revelstoke Mountain & Rogers Pass