This was my seventh and final day on Canada and I was quite tired. However, weather and snow were cooperative and I was able to give Tseeb a good tour of the mountain. There was no new snow but there had been about a foot over past week, so some soft snow remained in the north bowls. The front side was all spring conditions below base of Stoke, and since this terrain is west facing I was in no hurry to get on the hill early. From town it also looked like thick overcast, but it was in fact a mid level fog layer and the upper Stoke and Ripper terrain was mostly sunny all day. The fog broke up by noon, allowing the lower terrain to soften in the afternoon. Nearly all Stoke and Ripper terrain was packed powder.
After a warmup on upper Pitch Black/Hollywood we traversed into the western section of North Bowl, skied Meet the Neighbors, and then cruised to Ripper. We spotted Revelstoke's snow plot just below the top of Ripper:
From Downtowner is a view up to the north bowls.
Next time up Stoke we took the Lemming Line bootpack, necessary to access most of the north bowls. Traverse into the bowls, with Mt. MacKenzie above:
We went all the way across, then into Greely Bowl.
Skier's right was roped off due to the terrain trap below and likely avalanche hazard above.
The eastern sectors of the bowls are longer, but the exit can be tedious. I recalled from earlier visits that you needed to hike out part of an exit road. We started that process but came to a second uphill section and took out chances following tracks into the trees. These led eventually to a mogulled gully and the Big Woody exit to the bottom of Ripper.
After that I needed a cruiser on Chopper before returning to Stoke. We again took the Lemming Line bootpack. The fog had finally burned off so there was nice view down to the town and the Columbia River.
We traversed across the main bowl but planned to come back into it via a chute on the far side. In the pic below the traverse is at center right, but a skier is in view in the bowl above that.
That bowl requires a much steeper bootpack from the top of Stoke.
Tseeb dropping into the chute:
His line was in the sun and his turns made loud scrapes, so I skied the less steep but shaded line down the middle.
There was a lot of nice snow meandering down the lower sections of Powder Assault and Discipline. This time we hiked both uphill sections of the exit road and reached an easy traverse out to the Chopper groomer to Ripper.
We wanted lunch and stopped by the small warming hut at the top of the gondola. It was mobbed so we went back up Stoke and skied Hot Sauce/Devil's Cub for 4,700 vertical to the day lodge. It was 2:30 when we were done and we barely got up the gondola and Stoke by 3PM. We took the gravity traverse to Unlimited Assets, a chute with several rock features in its upper section.
These required some sideslipping and stepovers, but the lower section had great soft snow.
We skied steep Brake Check below and returned toward the front side. Here we got a nice view of the Monashees with some colorful clouds.
I skied groomed Pitchfork most of the way down, then wound up on cat walks on the last sections to the base. I finished with 27,800 vertical. Tseeb took an extra run on Stoke and got over 30K.
After a warmup on upper Pitch Black/Hollywood we traversed into the western section of North Bowl, skied Meet the Neighbors, and then cruised to Ripper. We spotted Revelstoke's snow plot just below the top of Ripper:
From Downtowner is a view up to the north bowls.
Next time up Stoke we took the Lemming Line bootpack, necessary to access most of the north bowls. Traverse into the bowls, with Mt. MacKenzie above:
We went all the way across, then into Greely Bowl.
Skier's right was roped off due to the terrain trap below and likely avalanche hazard above.
The eastern sectors of the bowls are longer, but the exit can be tedious. I recalled from earlier visits that you needed to hike out part of an exit road. We started that process but came to a second uphill section and took out chances following tracks into the trees. These led eventually to a mogulled gully and the Big Woody exit to the bottom of Ripper.
After that I needed a cruiser on Chopper before returning to Stoke. We again took the Lemming Line bootpack. The fog had finally burned off so there was nice view down to the town and the Columbia River.
We traversed across the main bowl but planned to come back into it via a chute on the far side. In the pic below the traverse is at center right, but a skier is in view in the bowl above that.
That bowl requires a much steeper bootpack from the top of Stoke.
Tseeb dropping into the chute:
His line was in the sun and his turns made loud scrapes, so I skied the less steep but shaded line down the middle.
There was a lot of nice snow meandering down the lower sections of Powder Assault and Discipline. This time we hiked both uphill sections of the exit road and reached an easy traverse out to the Chopper groomer to Ripper.
We wanted lunch and stopped by the small warming hut at the top of the gondola. It was mobbed so we went back up Stoke and skied Hot Sauce/Devil's Cub for 4,700 vertical to the day lodge. It was 2:30 when we were done and we barely got up the gondola and Stoke by 3PM. We took the gravity traverse to Unlimited Assets, a chute with several rock features in its upper section.
These required some sideslipping and stepovers, but the lower section had great soft snow.
We skied steep Brake Check below and returned toward the front side. Here we got a nice view of the Monashees with some colorful clouds.
I skied groomed Pitchfork most of the way down, then wound up on cat walks on the last sections to the base. I finished with 27,800 vertical. Tseeb took an extra run on Stoke and got over 30K.
