I have been holding off writing this blog as I still haven't packed up my snowboard and gear from the season as there is still more hope of riding yet.....even though we have started June already! But here is a summary of my most epic season to date!
I have been based in Revelstoke for the duration of the season, which is a truly unique ski field from my experience, in that your riding big mountain terrain, or you can feel you a million miles from a commercial ski field, all the while you are in bounds (or not far from it) of the ski field. Revelstoke isn't too far from many other fields in BC offering good missions elsewhere. But probably the best and coolest aspect of this place is its accessibility to world class backcountry, all around it!!
The ski hill reported over 11m of snowfall for the season, which started the beginning of December and ran through to the end of April. It seemed to become a pattern where we would receive 10-20cm overnight, then the same the following night, then again.......and again. Due to the hill being so big and having a huge 1700m vert combined with such a small crowd on it made for back to back pow days. Tree riding, groomer (with fresh sitting on top) riding, alpine riding were all amazing. Riding adapted to powder riding quickly, and features that seemed bloody big became achievable as often the consequences of mucking up and stacking were tiny in such soft dry pow! The lack of park does not matter at all as the amount of natural features is ridiculous, and although there are many different opinions on this I feel that a park is very unnecessary here. The image of Revelstoke riding (purely in my opinion) is about gnarly big riding in a wilderness wonderland where you can go as big and/or extreme as you want! For most of the season we were able to ride the full 1700m vert, which is enough for you need to unblock your ears by the time you are at the bottom. Epic. The amount of times I climbed "day of my life" up there was a fair few. Without experiencing it for yourself I will never be able to describe in words just how wonderfully epic the ski hill here really is. Its that simple!
I got out to another few ski hills. Lake Louise, Big White, and Silverstar. All were fun and it was good to get a little park fix a few times. The atmosphere on these hills were much different to Revelstoke. I guess the bigger crowds and older (more established) ski fields allowed them to be much more 'cemented' in a way. The village at the bottom of Big White was a lot of fun after a days riding. A lot of people hanging out, a few beers flowing and the night riding really made it fun. I guess in time Revelstoke may have something like this. After riding all of these resorts I looked forward to getting back to Revelstokes hill again.
I have a post about our biggest backcountry mission for the season up to the Asulkan Cabin so won't write about it. Revelstoke is so fortunate to have the accessibility to amazing backcountry. Just 20mins drive down the road is what is called 'The Fingers' which is a series of avalanche paths that come together at the bottom, hence its name. Just 45mins drive is the top of the Rogers Pass which is a playground for touring, and it is well documented and mapped making it very accessible for someone new to the area. Just behind us in Boulder mountain which is a sledding hill, however once up there it is a crazy playground of such a variety of terrain. As it stands up Boulder mountain was my last day of riding. My buddy Alex took me up on his sled. This was late May. We ran shuttles once up there until about 930pm when the sun went down. The riding up there was unreal spring fun, again with some very awesome natural hits to play on. Hopefully we will get up again. We probed at the bottom of the run we were doing.....my 240cm probe did not hit the ground! Such a huge base up there!! I feel like I have licked the tip of the iceberg of the terrain to play on around Revelstoke, but what a glorious taste I got. I'm sold on the potential of fun to be had!
So all in all an epic 6 months! I think I got about 75 days of riding in. I am now broke, hoping my little knee niggle comes right but oh so happy! If you ask me for any ideas of where to ride should anyone be heading to BC, you know exactly what I will say. I am not sticking about for the upcoming season, however I have no doubt I will return! As I saw on a bumper sticker......"My life is better than your holiday - Revelstoke, BC", couldn't have summed it up any better.
Next, Revelstoke summer.....
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