It seems that the snow resides in Revelstoke. It felt like it was snowing the whole time. Always just snowing. It continued snowing however slightly in the intermittent periods when it wasn’t dumping. Fine, light flakes that don’t register as a nuking, but fall constantly. Every morning the residents of town were at it without fail, digging out their doors and cars and their existence. Groundhog day in a winter wonderland.

It seems like the snow might leave briefly to make a cup of tea, deliver some muffins to a friend down the road, or sneak out to grab some milk, but it is never gone for long. On those rare occasions when it departs briefly, it is replaced by light. Blue skies lash the velvet sides of the mountains surrounding the town and if not that, the chrome of the next storm cloud refracts sunlight into the next bowl illuminating the vista in a sepia monotone that reeks of nostalgia- of days you can’t forget.

The new Revelstoke Mountain Resort opened its gondola doors in December to skiers, a new era in Revelstoke and perhaps the resort experience. The 2 operational lifts already service a leg searing 4600ft of vertical and enough terrain to keep you neck deep in champagne powder and bragging for weeks. North Bowl, with the wind blowing even more powder over the cliffed ridge and filling in perfect glades is destined to become iconic. And the lift hasn’t even been installed yet. When that day comes and riders can take advantage of the lower half of the bowl, their hoots and hollers will be heard by drivers below on the Trans Canadian Highway.

The resort is perhaps the perfect cross between Whistler and Kicking Horse- exceptional amounts of powder by definition, and the kind of vertical that makes your ears pop 3 times in the gondola. The piste at RMR is also worthy of note. 3000ft of well groomed piste rolls down the mountain and with the usual 10cms of snow each night, they are almost as fun as the chest deep turns we had in North Bowl. Skiing groomers has never been this much fun.

The tree skiing is pretty tight, but with gladding in the plans, the Revy equivalent of a Peak to Creek in Whistler will be good to go all season with the colder, drier snow that makes the interior famous and will justify the 6000_ft of proclaimed vertical. Kokanee Bowl will be the icing on a freeriders cake and that’s before you consider the endless possibilities of the slackcountry and Revelstoke backcountry.

It was never a secret that Revelstoke was perhaps the ideal place to ski- the large number of cat and heli ski operations based in or around Revy are a testament to that. The word is out most certainly out now though. The inaugural season has only reinforced that fact and the future looks deep for RMR.

Check out the resort and real estate opportunities at Revelstoke Mountain Resort