My first day there it snowed about 10 centimetres. Not bad, right? The second day it snowed another 20, filling in the previous day's tracks and then some. On the third day, a truly gluttonous 30 centimetres dropped. That's when I began wondering how I'd earned the kind of karma to get three pow days in a row, each deeper than the last, and how I could pull off such a feat again. But really, it had little to do with me: this is just what happens during an average winter week in Revelstoke, BC, and I just had the dumb luck to show up at the right time.
The greeting everyone gets.
Prior to this winter, I'd only ridden the backcountry in Revelstoke, or had passed through on cross-province commutes between Alberta and coastal BC. Everyone knew Revvy was the right place for sled missions, touring trips or heli-ski excursions, depending on the colour of your credit card. But when Revelstoke Mountain Resort opened on Saturday, December 22nd, 2007, everything changed. No longer was Revelstoke a destination for slednecks and backcountry riders alone; the big mountain terrain and deep-ass snow was now fair game for anyone who could afford a lift ticket.
It was with great remorse that I didn't get to ride the new resort in its opening season. I tried and tried to schedule a visit, but nothing came together. Instead, I had to hear about other lucky rider's visits from afar, content in the knowledge that nothing short of catastrophe would prevent me from hitting it this winter. I booked a visit for the last week of February, thinking it would be a safe bet for good snowfall: late enough in the season for a good snowpack to have formed, early enough to avoid spring conditions.
The town.
As it turned out, a lot of riders had been hitting Revelstoke in the early-to-mid '09 season, largely based on the, shall we say, challenging snow conditions facing other resorts in Western Canada. And with each visit and subsequent web post, the resort's reputation grew: pillow lines galore, insane tree riding, natural halfpipes and seemingly endless vertical. The result of this situation was an obsession with riding Revelstoke that increased by the hour; it was like Doc Brown's DeLorian had brought me back to my adolescent shred days, when I could barely sleep through the night if I was going to ride Horseshoe Valley the next day (sad, I know).
I arrived in Revelstoke, with much anticipation of course, to a light drizzle. But a man with faith knows that rain in town often means snow on the mountain, and this was indeed the case. As you've likely gathered from the introduction to this article, I hit the god-damn jackpot with conditions and rode nothing but powder for three straight days. My legs burned from the vertical (5,620 feet) and I passed out by 9 PM each night due to utter exhaustion, but it was easily some of the best lift-accessed snowboarding I'd ever experienced. All of the terrain talk proved to be true, and I was stunned by how snowboard-friendly the entire mountain was. Aside from the odd flat spot and some long-ass cat tracks (which, let's admit, can be super fun to ride), it's as if whatever higher power created the terrain had shredding in mind. It actually reminded me of Mount Baker, but on a much larger scale.
The town of Revelstoke has come a long way, too. I had sushi that tasted as good as anything I've had in Vancouver and found more than a few decent bars, but the real highlight was a place simply called The Cabin. What, you haven't heard about it yet? For shame. Picture the ultimate hang-out for snowboarders, with a bar, bowling alley, art gallery, shop and skatepark, all under one roof; it's like you don't have to go anywhere else, ever. They should offer franchises for this place, it's such an ingenious idea. Development is coming quickly to the once sleepy community, but after talking to a few locals, it seems to be occurring in a reasonable way; in other words, the place hasn't turned into anything resembling Disneyland just yet and is unlikely to in the future.
If there's any single feeling I left with after departing Revvy, it was that I wanted to move there one day, or at least book in for an entire season. I met all kinds of people who'd done just that: rented a small house or apartment for the season, bought a pass, and put the rest of their life on temporary hold so they could ride every day. This has happened in ski towns around the world since the first rope-tow was invented, but there was truly something (cliché alert) different about Revelstoke; something that sparked the, "fuck it, I am throwing it all away to move here" kind of feelings that I haven't experienced in years. I suppose the ultimate test will be this coming season, when I return and hope to get the same conditions again. If the snow falls as hard, I may just stick around and find myself a real estate agent.
One of thousands of epic views.
Check out the Push.ca Ski Resort Directory for a detailed description of Revelstoke, plus mountain stats and contact information.
Check here to visit the Revelstoke Mountain Resort website.
And check out our Revelstoke photo gallery:
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