Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Revelstoke, British Columbia



Believe the hype.

Revelstoke opened only in 2008, but already it has gained a reputation as the skier's resort.

After my first day skiing here, I can report . . . the hype is mostly true. Simply put, you will not find better skiing anywhere. I would say Nevados de Chillan in Chile and Powder Mountain and Snowbasin in Utah are in the same league, but not better. If you are into backcountry, powder, and face shots, this is the place. If you ski with a shovel and an avalanche probe in your pack, this is the place. Revelstoke is an infinite orgasm loop for the hard core skier.

Steep? Check.

Deep? Check.

Uncrowded? Check.

It snows about 600 inches a year here, and nobody can get here to ski. There is no airport, it's a 9 hour drive from Vancouver, a 6 hour drive from Banff, and the roads leading here are closed for days - sometime weeks - at a time, due to avalanches.

A note to my friends Dingo and Trampass:

Forget about Switzerland.

FUCK Switzerland.

Guys. If you want to ski for real, strap on a pair of extra-wide powder boards and a large set of gonads, and go to Revelstoke. Period. Full stop.

Compared to Revelstoke, Switzerland is for pussies.

Today I was skiing with a friend who, as a teenager, raced World Cup downhill and has skied the steepest and deepest all over the world. She also was stunned by Revelstoke. I was on my K2 Coombas, a backcountry ski packing 102 underfoot, and they were skinnier than 99% of the skis I saw in the lift line.

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