Our Canadian Roadtrip Adventure: Skiing the Stoke

Just three lifts. Strictly speaking four lifts. Could even argue six lifts. But I think Revelstoke likes this claim of having so much skiable terrain serviced by only three lifts. And it really is truly amazing the extent of skiing they provide from just these three lifts. Or four. Or six.

So, three, four or six. Well it depends how you count, or rather what you count.

From the base station bang outside the Sutton Place Hotel (did I mention that place already), there is a modern gondola lift which takes you more than half way up the mountain. Except it doesn't. The gondola from base takes you only a short distance to a mid-station, but at this "mid-station" you need to get out and get on the next lift, so strictly speaking it's two separate lifts and not one.

Then from the top of the "second" gondola it's a short ski down to lift number two/three, the Stoke 4-man chairlift, which takes you to the highpoint of lift served terrain.

From here the options are huge, an easy green run winding it's way down the entire mountain, constantly criss crossing the blues and blacks, making it easy to mix and match as the fancy takes you, dropping off for a quick blast down something steeper or heading into the boundless options through the trees, safe in the knowledge it's all part of the inbound patrolled ski area and you'll easily find a way out back onto one of the marked runs. Everywhere is so quiet, much like everywhere else we've been, not a single lift queue and certainly no competition for spaces on the slopes, or off the slopes in the trees if that's what takes your fancy. And it certainly does mine. Karen and Fin also had a good dabble in the off piste and really liked it, helped a lot by nice soft fresh snow everywhere. At this time of year it's inevitable to have spring conditions on the lower half of the mountain and while this was true and the snow really softened there was still plenty of it and the runs back to base were in decent shape.

Then there's a flatt'ish stretch of piste which links to the North bowl, a bit of a pain for Fin to get to as he doesn't carry much speed, but worthy of the effort all the same. It's flat on the way back too, but by then you're smiling too much to care. In the North bowl there is one other 4-man chairlift, the Ripper chair. This is probably supposed to be the 3rd lift, but we know it's the 4th. They're not kidding us.

Then lower down the mountain there are two kiddie winkle travelator's. One at the nursery area at base camp and one at gondola mid station, that's between gondola lift one and gondola lift two, this travelator acts for another nursery slope as well as linking the Revelation Lodge back up to the gondola (mid) station. These are lifts designed for skiers so I think should be included in the lift count, so in total I make it six lifts. Even so, remarkable lift to ski ratio compared to some mega resorts of Europe with dozens and dozens of lifts.

This brings me neatly to what for me is the only drawback of the mountain. It's a common fault with a lot of these N.A. ski areas, in so much as the on mountain eating and drinking options are really limited and in all honesty not much cop. Functional would best describe them. There's only a couple of places, none of which have much ambience and although the food was OK it was all rather fast food'y and not like the food we get spoilt with in Europe. Think large school canteens but with the clanking of ski boots and the all too frequent "awesome maaaan" boasts and you'll not be too far wrong.

Having said that it is a small price to pay for the quality of the skiing on offer. By some margin the best we've experienced on this trip, arguably partly helped by the terrific conditions, and I'd go so far as to say my best 2 days of skiing in North America. And that includes a few good ones in Vail, Breckenridge and Whistler, so that's some accolade. Love Revelstoke I do. Love it. It's good. Want to revisit to do some of the more serious stuff, like the hike up at the top of the Stoke chair, looks amazing.

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Going to start with a video clip showing just why I love this place. I know you can get this type of stuff elsewhere, but this is by far the best I've seen and experienced. It goes on a little bit and I think gets better and better, great stuff.

Next we have a little video compilation of a few clips from skiing at Revelstoke on Tuesday

And then this next clip is from the Glades of Glory trees where I fell (not literally) upon a sort of cave, only about 2 feet high at it's lowest point. It looked like a tight squeeze and indeed it was. Shorter skis would have been a bonus. There was an alternate route round to the side, but this looked way more fun.

Just a few more video clips while we're at it ...