Revelstoke Mountain Resort

Trip Date: December 2014

Revy has been at the top of my snowboarding bucket list for quite some time.  I'm not sure why I hadn't made it that far west, but 2014 was my lucky year.  Nine of us, plus Devin and two dogs, headed out on Thursday afternoon for our annual ski/snowboard weekend.  We booked a place, Catherwood Lodge, that was only one kilometre from the base of the mountain.  The lodge sits on thirteen acres of land and includes a hot tub.  You could literally see the runs from the back deck.  

Revelstoke Mountain Resort Trail Map

Revelstoke is approximately 410km west of Calgary along the Trans Canada Highway.  The resort boasts North America's greatest vertical at 1,713 metres and features 3,121 skiable acres.  It is also the only resort in the world to offer lift, cat, heli, and backcountry skiing from the same village base.  We would only be using the lift-assisted skiing and riding option on this trip, however.

Catherwood Lodge

Unfortunately the snow was a bit crusty and some of the runs were icy in places, thanks to unseasonably warm temperatures in southern B.C.  We did, however, manage to find a few pockets of fresh snow higher-up on the mountain, more specifically Vertigo and Separate Reality.  Here's a few photos from the trip that were taken by a number of different people.

The Mackenzie Outpost at the top of the Revelation Gondola, partway up the mountain

The view from the summit

Christine and Sarah doing laps off The Ripper chairlift

The skiing and boarding crew minus Dan, who was taking the photo

The second day started off really foggy!

The trees were covered in hoar frost

A close-up of the frosty trees

Matt and Ashley at the top

After lunch the fog burned off and gave us some great views of the town

Despite the subpar snow we still had a great weekend.  The skiing and snowboarding are only part of the reason we all make the trip each year anyway.  We are already talking about coming back when the mountain is covered in its legendary powder.  Until then I'll be looking forward to my next Revelstoke experience.

Mt. Revelstoke

Trip Date: June 2013

Christine and I decided to get a head start on the Shuswap trip and leave first thing Saturday morning so we could go for a hike before the rest of the crew arrived in Revelstoke that evening.  Our plan leaving Calgary was to go to Mt. Revelstoke National Park and drive up the Meadows in the Sky Parkway.  We didn't realize that the summit of Mt. Revelstoke would still be covered in snow in late June.  After much debate we decided to still head up there, but change our hiking route.  Due to the amount of snow, the road all the way to the summit was closed.  Instead we had to park at the Caribou Cabin, which is about 19km up the Meadows in the Sky Parkway.  This little hiccup would definitely add some distance to our day, but since we wouldn't be hiking very far once we reached the summit anyway it was a compromise we were willing to make.  

Mt. Revelstoke National Park is about 410km west of Calgary along the Trans-Canada Highway.  The Meadows in the Sky Parkway is a 26km road that winds its way to the summit of Mt. Revelstoke via 16 narrow switchbacks.  Since we parked at about kilometre 19, our hike to the summit was just over 6.5km along a paved road.  We chose to hike the Firetower Trail, which is only a 350m stroll when you get to start at the summit parking lot.  For us it meant 14km round trip with about 400m gained in elevation along the way.  Hiking along a paved road doesn't leave much to the imagination, in fact, it was quite boring for both of us.  As we approached the summit the views definitely got better, but we were faced with a new challenge of navigating through the slushy snow up to the fire lookout.  We made it up and back in one piece, but it wasn't the most enjoyable hike either of us have ever done.  We both agreed though, that we'll be back to Mt. Revelstoke sometime in the near future when the snow has vanished so we can hike out to Eva Lake and see what the summit truly has to offer!

The Caribou Cabin is a backcountry shelter that is only open during the winter months

The monotonous journey along the road

We must be getting higher as there were large patches of snow on the road

Off the parkway and onto the Firetower Trail

Our goal for the day was this old fire lookout.  This lookout was built in 1927 and was used until 1988.  It is now designated a Federal Heritage Building.  

Lake Revelstoke as viewed from the lookout

The peaks of Mt. Revelstoke National Park

Even though there was still lots of snow it was a beautiful day

The Columbia Mountains

We saw this Hoary Marmot on our hike back to the Jeep