Revelstoke

Staring at the unlimited Revelstoke terrain

Since the originally planned Revelstoke trip in early January did not happen, a much shorter version was undertaken on the last weekend of Feburary with Patrick, David and Ryan. We left Vancouver on the Friday night and after many Tim Hortons stops and a few roll up the rim wins by Pat, we arrived in Revelstoke too late to do anything but hit the sack.

Patrick at the top of the bootpack above North Bowl

Saturday was a major mountain exploration day since they hadn't had much snow and it was pretty overcast. Revelstoke is massive! Despite the fact that it was -25 at the top, we managed to check out some pretty awesome zones before retreating to the lodge to warm up and get lunch. The groomers at Revelstoke are also spectacular. They are steep, straight and have killer rollers that could launch you much farther than you expect to go if you don't prepare for them. The only problem is that you get going so fast that body parts start to ice up. Patrick found this out the hard way when his ear froze to his helmet.

There is no Merlins equivalent at the bottom of Revy so we had to just make do on our own

Saturday evening was our night on the town. We did a tour of downtown Revelstoke starting off with the purchase of some Cinnabuns from Coopers foods. That stop was followed by a Little Caesars hot and ready pizza and a trip to the Village Idiot, the local bar. The bar had a wonderful array of retro skis, many of which we would have gladly taken home with us had they not been mounted to the walls or cut in half to make chairs. A quick stop at Outabounds, the local nightclub, concluded our tour and we headed back to the Super 8 to play quarters and poach the hot tub that had already been closed for a few hours.

Cinnabuns!

Repping the sponsors

New quarters rule: the troll

Skiing sunday was more of the same. We went back to the places that we had discovered the day before and looked at them more closely, scoping out the lines that we wanted to hit had there been more snow. It had snowed a few centimetres during the night, enough to soften it up and make for some great skiing in some of the zones that we hiked up too. We also found some snow that was left over from the last storm and had a great time billy goating our way through the cliffs that litter the area.

Ryan struggling with the super S7's on the hike

We drove back to the motel after a great weekend, all ready to go home after we gased up and grabbed some Tim Hortons. Since it had been snowing most of the day however, we check the road conditions and decided that it was probably a good idea to stay an extra night since a travel advisory had been issued. I think that decision was aided by the fact that 15cms were expected to fall on the hill overnight. We spent the evening bowling and back at the Village Idiot where Pat and Ryan ordered the biggest burger I have ever seen. It was pretty gross but apparently it was delicious.

Bowling

Burger, chicken breast, ham, fried egg, two types of cheese...

The next morning we woke up to what the snow report was calling 14cm, but we knew better. We showed up at the hill 30 min before it opened and there was already a line, the first one we had seen the entire time we had been there. Luckily, once we were on the hill the crowds seem to disappear and we felt like we were the only ones left on the mountain. We skied all morning getting fresh laps through the trees and took advantage of our exploring to go hit some of the airs that we had checked out the day before.

Digging the van out monday morning

Miraculously, the sun came out. It felt surreal being the practically the only ones on the mountain with all that snow and terrain all to ourselves. I am so glad that we stayed the extra day, it made the awesome trip into an epic one.

Stoked on life



Another busy pow day at Revelstoke