My departure from Mustang Snowcat was in a snowstorm starting about 3PM Friday. After 2+ hours in snowcat and bus I was on the TransCanada Hwy at 6 and got to Revelstoke at 7PM. I was here in 2009 and 2010 and wrote a FTO feature after the first trip. http://www.firsttracksonline.com/2009/1 ... in-resort/
This time the all 3 buildings of the Nelsen Lodge are up and running. Make that the Sutton Place Hotel, an upscale chain in Canadian cities which took over the Revelstoke base hotel just last month. I am in the Sutton Place for my 2 nights here, which is a welcome respite part way into a 5 week road trip. The onsite Rockford restaurant is very good, the hot tub is handy and all units here have washer/dryer in the rooms. Since it's been snowing the whole time, it's nice to have the car underground before I hit the road again Sunday.
I was hosted by marketing director Sarah Windsor and also chatted with a couple of locals in the hotel. The real estate has been fairly slow going, with most units in the first 2 buildings sold but quite a few remain for sale in the 3rd building where I had a 3 bedroom suite to myself. The smaller units are more heavily rented out during the season.
The ski resort itself is still growing briskly in visitation, and I was warned by a local Friday that it might take a long time to get on the mountain on a powder Saturday. So when I met Sarah at 8AM she said that with the 13 inches new snow the gondola line was deep into the parking lot and we should wait until it died down. That turned out to be 10:30. I was tired enough from the past 4 days that it wasn't worth standing in a long line to get on any earlier.
I have heard of weekend gondola backups being common at Kicking Horse for several years. The good news is that at Revelstoke once you're up the mountain you can stay on the Stoke and Ripper chairs where the midday lines were no more than 5 minutes. Over half of Kicking Horse's upper terrain is dependent upon its gondola, so if it's busy the gondola lines can be bad all day. Fortunately I've never been there on a weekend, and 2 years ago I was here at Revelstoke on a non-powder Sunday and there were no lift line issues.
I would expect Revelstoke to get daytrippers and weekenders from Kamloops and the Okanagan, attracted by the more advanced terrain and more snow. But Sarah said there's also a lot of business from Calgary, which is 5 hours away under ideal conditions and would have been a lot more than that Friday. Revelstoke does get a lot more snow than the areas to the east, though those places are also having good seasons in 2011-12.
Sarah and I took one run on Stoke, then headed for North Bowl. Only the straight traverse entry to Meet the Neighbors was open. Sarah there.
The snow continued all day, so not ideal for pictures. Temps were in the 15-20F range.
Parachute is one of the steep drops through the trees below the bowl.
We moved on to the Ripper chair and ventured into the upper Powder Monkey glades there.
Usually these trees are dense and the snow was already mostly skier packed in there.
Surprisingly there was more lightly cut powder under the Ripper lift.
After the final ride up Stoke where wind and visibility were deteriorating, we skied near the southern boundary. It starts with a short alpine, then trees between the Roller Coaster and Hot Sauce runs. These trees were also dense but had not had as much traffic as those by the Ripper chair.
From there we skied the long Devil's Club and Snow Rodeo runs down to the base, total 5,600 vertical from the top of Stoke, 14,250 for the short day. The lower mountain can get rain or thaw and develop a hardpack base. I'm told this occurred right after New Year's. But all of that is well buried now and the cut up powder near the base was as good as up high.
Before December 24 Revelstoke, Kicking Horse, Lake Louise and Castle Mt. offered a discount card that cost $99 for 3 days skiing with a $20 discount on any days beyond that. That's an impressive list of areas for the locals and even some vacationers. KIcking Horse was just purchased by RCR (owner of Fernie, Kimberley, Nakiska, Stoneham and Mt. St. Anne) and will likely not be in this program next season.
This time the all 3 buildings of the Nelsen Lodge are up and running. Make that the Sutton Place Hotel, an upscale chain in Canadian cities which took over the Revelstoke base hotel just last month. I am in the Sutton Place for my 2 nights here, which is a welcome respite part way into a 5 week road trip. The onsite Rockford restaurant is very good, the hot tub is handy and all units here have washer/dryer in the rooms. Since it's been snowing the whole time, it's nice to have the car underground before I hit the road again Sunday.
I was hosted by marketing director Sarah Windsor and also chatted with a couple of locals in the hotel. The real estate has been fairly slow going, with most units in the first 2 buildings sold but quite a few remain for sale in the 3rd building where I had a 3 bedroom suite to myself. The smaller units are more heavily rented out during the season.
The ski resort itself is still growing briskly in visitation, and I was warned by a local Friday that it might take a long time to get on the mountain on a powder Saturday. So when I met Sarah at 8AM she said that with the 13 inches new snow the gondola line was deep into the parking lot and we should wait until it died down. That turned out to be 10:30. I was tired enough from the past 4 days that it wasn't worth standing in a long line to get on any earlier.
I have heard of weekend gondola backups being common at Kicking Horse for several years. The good news is that at Revelstoke once you're up the mountain you can stay on the Stoke and Ripper chairs where the midday lines were no more than 5 minutes. Over half of Kicking Horse's upper terrain is dependent upon its gondola, so if it's busy the gondola lines can be bad all day. Fortunately I've never been there on a weekend, and 2 years ago I was here at Revelstoke on a non-powder Sunday and there were no lift line issues.
I would expect Revelstoke to get daytrippers and weekenders from Kamloops and the Okanagan, attracted by the more advanced terrain and more snow. But Sarah said there's also a lot of business from Calgary, which is 5 hours away under ideal conditions and would have been a lot more than that Friday. Revelstoke does get a lot more snow than the areas to the east, though those places are also having good seasons in 2011-12.
Sarah and I took one run on Stoke, then headed for North Bowl. Only the straight traverse entry to Meet the Neighbors was open. Sarah there.
The snow continued all day, so not ideal for pictures. Temps were in the 15-20F range.
Parachute is one of the steep drops through the trees below the bowl.
We moved on to the Ripper chair and ventured into the upper Powder Monkey glades there.
Usually these trees are dense and the snow was already mostly skier packed in there.
Surprisingly there was more lightly cut powder under the Ripper lift.
After the final ride up Stoke where wind and visibility were deteriorating, we skied near the southern boundary. It starts with a short alpine, then trees between the Roller Coaster and Hot Sauce runs. These trees were also dense but had not had as much traffic as those by the Ripper chair.
From there we skied the long Devil's Club and Snow Rodeo runs down to the base, total 5,600 vertical from the top of Stoke, 14,250 for the short day. The lower mountain can get rain or thaw and develop a hardpack base. I'm told this occurred right after New Year's. But all of that is well buried now and the cut up powder near the base was as good as up high.
Before December 24 Revelstoke, Kicking Horse, Lake Louise and Castle Mt. offered a discount card that cost $99 for 3 days skiing with a $20 discount on any days beyond that. That's an impressive list of areas for the locals and even some vacationers. KIcking Horse was just purchased by RCR (owner of Fernie, Kimberley, Nakiska, Stoneham and Mt. St. Anne) and will likely not be in this program next season.
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