If you want plenty of powder, leg-burning vertical, and slopes that demand respect, put Revelstoke on your radar, writes Sarah Pollok.
Nicknaming a ski resort “Pow Town” is an audacious move. It gives a Kiwi skier dreams of floating across pillowy snow, carving into untouched slopes, and gliding through snow-coaked glades one can rarely find back home.
Yet, when I arrive at Revelstoke Mountain Resort, in the Canadian town of the same name, the locals are grumpy. It’s been a week (”a whole week!”) since the fast groomers and daredevil bowls have seen fresh snow.
Fortunately, after two runs it’s clear: the locals may be right but they’re also a little spoilt. Even without fresh pow, the firm carvable snow is leagues above anything you get on Aotearoa’s big mountains, which receive around 3 metres of snow each year, compared to Mt MacKenzie’s 10.5.
Mt MacKenzie receives, on average, 10.5 meters of snow annually. Photo / Revelstoke Mountain Resort
Despite my contentment, the mountain, which has a reputation for demanding terrain and record-breaking snowfall, delivers on its nickname on my first night. I wake up to a chalky blue sky, sunshine pouring over the peaks and 15 cm of fresh powder blanketing the slopes like a welcome mat. A sizable queue forms behind the lift an hour before opening and -12C temperatures wait up top but it could be -40 before I’d consider skipping the definition of a perfect ski day.
A long, steep gondola follows a short steep one and it becomes obvious how Revy (as the locals call it) holds the title for ski field with the most vertical in North America. It’s arguably also one of the more extreme big fields, with a near 50-50 split of black and blue runs and the remaining 12% as easy greens. Unlike many popular ski fields, few people are here for the apres and all people are here to ski and ski hard. That being said, the field is developing a more “progressive layout” an employee explains and a new mountain sports school sits at the top of the second gondola (a genius idea that means parents don’t have to ski to the bottom to collect young ones after class). However, if you love spicy blues, technical blacks and groomers you can easily hit 70km/h on, Revelstoke is your mountain.
By day two, my family know it’s best to gun it straight to The Ripper chair, where the blue and black runs are like North American highways; wide, smooth and near empty. I hit runs like Burn Down, Blow Down, Chopper and Downtowner again and again, never tiring of finding new lines to cut through the beautiful rolling trails. Rust well and truly shaken off, I hunt out some glades and stumble upon “Glades of Glory” which is nothing short of magical. Slowly threading through the towering snow-cloaked pines, the outside world falls away and there’s nothing but complete quiet and sunlight that streams through the branches, fractal and gold as it hits the snow.
My burning thighs and frozen toes give up before I do and at 11am I traverse across to MacKenzie Outpost, a little eatery at the top of Revelation gondola for lunch. Dishing up meaty American hamburgers, gravy-soaked poutine and other fixings, we take the takeaways to a warming hut next door as a canopy of cloud drifts across the sky, bringing fat, slow flakes in an unceasing flurry. Toes defrosted and bellies full, we take the Stoke chair to the top of the mountain and work across the platter of blacks and blues on offer, from Devil’s Club and Snow Rodeo to Pitch Black and Hollywood. Warmer than the morning but with snow still steadily falling, we hit fresh lines every run, marking the first (and likely last) time I’ll ever get powdery “first tracks” at 2pm.
Several hours in my thighs go from a mumble to a scream but it’s near impossible to quit on the perfect day. Eventually, the lifts signal last call and it’s time to hit the Last Spike, the longest ski run in North America at a marathon distance of 15km. As a green run, it’s punishingly slow in places but well worth it for the bragging rights. And, admittedly, my weary legs would surely have collapsed on anything steeper.
The tired pins are another reason I’m thrilled my hotel is 100 metres away. The palatial Sutton Place is Revelstoke’s premium ski-in, ski-out hotel where, in five minutes flat, you can go from shredding powder to a private outdoor hot tub; a fact I take advantage of every day during an unforgettable stay.
Gnorm the Powder Gnome indicates how much snow has fallen and is the mountain's mascot. Photo / Revelstoke Mountain Resort
DETAILS
Getting there
Travellers can fly direct from Auckland to Vancouver and then take a domestic flight to Kelowna. Several shuttle companies provide transport to Revelstoke, which is a 2.5-hour drive away.
