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March 31, 2017 Revelstoke
01 Apr 2017 21:12 #229394
by Zap
March 31, 2017 Revelstoke was created by Zap
We arrived at Golden and could see the Kicking Horse ski area from the road. The original ski area is the base of the resort with the lower trails of 9 straight runs that were some groomed with the frozen base. So that is an afternoon ski area. The upper area is via the gondola and has 2 groomers and 2 groomers off the quad. No new fresh snow means few options. We have skied here in a powder day and it was fun. Even with our free MAXXPass with decided to move to Revelstoke.
We arrived at Revelstoke which is under 1500', and the snowbanks were diminishing. There was a film crew there that was doing a Christmas scene in the center of the town. Christmas trees and ornaments plus actors who had their winter clothing on for the shots; I bet they were sweating in the spring heat. It was definitely spring at the base of the ski resort where there are lots of new buildings and condos. The village is at about 1680' where we picked up our tickets using our Mountain Collective Passes. We rode the lower gondola a short distance up near the Revelation Lodge, then got out and stepped into the upper gondola for the ride up to McKenzie Outpost. After getting off the upper gondola you ski down a short distance to The Stoke express quad. The top of the lift is a 7300'. Yes, lots of vertical when it is open and skiable. The mountain had cloud/fog layers at various elevations. The Stoke area had packed powder and groomed terrain. Most of the runs are “blacks” that were just great. The locals were moving at speed and laying down great tracks. Guided folks were following kick steps up towards Sub Peak, at 7677', to ski down into North Bowl. The folks kicking steps to the climbers' left ere heading to ski Separate Reality down to the Ripper Connection. There hasn't been any new snow recently, and it was pretty cut-up. We decided to go to The Ripper Express quad – this was not a great decision with the groomers being frozen terrain. OK, we headed back to The Stroke, and by then the fog had moved into the area and the lower half was groomed but the visibility was zip! We were not happy... The couple of trails that were groomed had frozen chucks of golf balls. So we skied the The Last Spike trail, which is a cat track, down to find some groomed runs lower down. Surprisingly there was nothing groomed on the lower part of the mountain, and the Last Spike cat track got very boring with no choices. Our visit last year was in a powder storm that was fun, but not today. We skied down to the top of the lower gondola and rode the short distance to the Village. The funny end was that they had built a pebble trail leading from the gondola base to a platform over a small pond to get to the area near the Village sidewalk. A unique end of the day.
We arrived at Revelstoke which is under 1500', and the snowbanks were diminishing. There was a film crew there that was doing a Christmas scene in the center of the town. Christmas trees and ornaments plus actors who had their winter clothing on for the shots; I bet they were sweating in the spring heat. It was definitely spring at the base of the ski resort where there are lots of new buildings and condos. The village is at about 1680' where we picked up our tickets using our Mountain Collective Passes. We rode the lower gondola a short distance up near the Revelation Lodge, then got out and stepped into the upper gondola for the ride up to McKenzie Outpost. After getting off the upper gondola you ski down a short distance to The Stoke express quad. The top of the lift is a 7300'. Yes, lots of vertical when it is open and skiable. The mountain had cloud/fog layers at various elevations. The Stoke area had packed powder and groomed terrain. Most of the runs are “blacks” that were just great. The locals were moving at speed and laying down great tracks. Guided folks were following kick steps up towards Sub Peak, at 7677', to ski down into North Bowl. The folks kicking steps to the climbers' left ere heading to ski Separate Reality down to the Ripper Connection. There hasn't been any new snow recently, and it was pretty cut-up. We decided to go to The Ripper Express quad – this was not a great decision with the groomers being frozen terrain. OK, we headed back to The Stroke, and by then the fog had moved into the area and the lower half was groomed but the visibility was zip! We were not happy... The couple of trails that were groomed had frozen chucks of golf balls. So we skied the The Last Spike trail, which is a cat track, down to find some groomed runs lower down. Surprisingly there was nothing groomed on the lower part of the mountain, and the Last Spike cat track got very boring with no choices. Our visit last year was in a powder storm that was fun, but not today. We skied down to the top of the lower gondola and rode the short distance to the Village. The funny end was that they had built a pebble trail leading from the gondola base to a platform over a small pond to get to the area near the Village sidewalk. A unique end of the day.
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