"DEEP BLUE" 5 days @ Jaws feat Albee Layer,Torrey Meister,Russell Bierke,Tyler Larronde,&Wilem Banks

Revelstoke, you heard of it? Revelstoke, Revy, you heard of it? Oh yeah, baby! Okay, 30 seconds. Gotta get my composure here. Who needs coffee? Revelstoke has been the talk of the town in Whistler for the last four or five years and is the place where a powder pilgrimage has honestly taken place. Tons of skiers are packing their bags and moving to Revelstoke for its bottomless powder, its colder temperatures, its backcountry terrain that's literally everywhere, just steps outside of town, and the highest vertical in North America. But is Revelstoke all it's cracked up to be? Well, I went last year and it was pretty damn fun. So today I'm gonna lay into the details a little bit and give you the Rise in Alpine review on Revelstoke Mountain Resort. So let's start out with spitting a few mountain statistics. The vertical drop at Revelstoke is absolutely massive. It's 1,713 meters, which is 100 meters higher than the peak chair at Whistler. Honestly, it's pretty mega and it's pretty direct. You feel it when you're skiing down top to bottom. It's like nothing else that I've ever felt. It gets those quads absolutely pumping. But it doesn't just end at vertical drop. The skiable acreage is about 3,121 acres. So that is a boatload of acreage per skier and that's not even including all of the backcountry terrain, which surrounds the entire mountain. There are five total lifts at Revelstoke, but kind of three that only really matter. The Revelation Gauntlet, which takes you from the bottom to the mid-mountain. And then the Stoke Chair, that's your main artery taking to the top of the mountain and all of the juicy stuff. Great chair to lap. And the Ripper Chair, which has got just some great mellow glades and groomers. For those of you who are gonna have to make a powder pilgrimage to get to Revelstoke, it's located in the Selkirk Mountains, about a two and a half hour drive away from Kelowna, British Columbia. It's called the Powder Highway for a reason. So I think if you're gonna do a trip to Revelstoke, you should tack on other mountains as well and rent a car or something like that. Rent a car, steal a car, whatever you have to do. Snow conditions and climate. So Revi is known for its bottomless champagne powder. In the last three years, it hasn't disappointed. It's received about 900 centimeters of snow. So that's less than Whistler Blackcomb, but it's lighter and drier than Whistler Blackcomb. And dry powder is truly magical. Yeah, if you know, you know. It snows four to five days a week. So sunshine isn't all that common in like the core of the season, but that's the same across most mountains. You're gonna get snow and flatter light a lot of the time because we need snow to ski on. And then you're gonna get the odd bluebird day. Now that we've got the stats out of the way, let's talk about the actual riding experience. Let's start with the beginner terrain. Revelstoke leans towards the intermediate and advanced skier in terms of all of its terrain. Obviously, if you're an advanced skier, an expert skier, you're gonna have the most fun in every single mountain, but there's still some spots to learn at Revelstoke. There's a magic carpet there if you're learning. And the bottom part, the lower mid-station part of the Revelation Gondola. One of the highlights for a beginner trainer, Revelstoke Mountain Resort is the last spike. It's a green run, which is 9.2 miles long. So about 15 kilometers long, which goes from the summit to the base of Revelstoke. And I believe it might be the longest ski run in the entire world, which is super epic. So beginners and experts alike can both ski the longest run in the world. And if you're still ripping pizza, 15K in pizza might be your entire day. So it's pretty nutty, but make sure you can ski on a cat track first. Intermediate terrain and carving runs. The intermediate terrain and carving runs at Revelstoke are what truly blew my mind. The top to bottom from Revelstoke was unlike anything I'd ever experienced. They've got blue runs going straight down, which don't divert at all. And you've got fall line, 1,700 meters down from the top to the bottom. It's insane and it's honestly a carver's dream. Like I think it's one of the best spots I've ever ripped a groomer from top to bottom, without a doubt in my mind. And there's not that many people skiing groomers there. So you're gonna have a lot of space, which is great for really laying it out. And you're gonna have corduroy at the end of the day because most people there are shredding bumps, shredding pow, skiing in the trees. So by the time I was ready to ski out at the end of the day, these groomers were so much fun. There's also sweet intermediate terrain on the ripper chair. It's got like a mellow pitch to it. And there's lots of trees. That's a great place if you're, you know, with your family and some people are of different skill levels. Like those trees, I still found them to be super fricking fun. But if you've got like a family or you're learning to ski trees better, it's not like too steep in the trees that you feel nervous. It's like nice, flowy, don't have to worry too much. And the spacing is pretty good. So the ripper chair is a great spot for trees and also has some sweet, sweet groomers in there. The black and double black terrain at Revelstoke was an absolute blast, super zany, fun, like just super creative. There's little drops coming out of the trees everywhere and lots of different options. It's broken down into like a couple of different areas. You can ski under the stoke chair and there's main runs there that are like more open mogul runs to kind of the south side, like jalapeno and hot sauce or underneath the chair. There's some sweet glades, like the steel life glades or Clyde's glades. Or if you want some steeper trees, which I was really impressed with off the like separate reality bowl. And I think it's called like separate reality ridge. You can also go off to the north bowl and kind of ski more open alpine type terrain, or you can go off to kind of the south Greeley bowl. And part of that is the back end to be kind of ski down the top part of that before connecting to like the wider black runs. Similar to Whistler Blackcomb at Revelstoke, you could kill yourself 10 times over if you wanted to. There wasn't as many inbounds, like pants shitting type runs as there are at Whistler, but there's still lots of epic terrain you can like toy on the extreme side. So there's the hot dog hallways, lots of like little chutes and cliffs you can kind of jump off. In terms of like the higher extreme terrain, like above the north bowl and the stuff that goes inbounds, I didn't feel like it had that kind of insane alpine stuff, like the cirques, the west cirques, the coolars, you know, the spankies ladder. But definitely if you know where to look or where not to look, there are some like extreme spots that you can rip. Tree skiing. So tree skiing at Revelstoke is absolutely heavenly and what makes it better is you can like adventure through most of it, especially in the upper reaches of the mountain without feeling too nervous about getting clipped out. I had no problems with getting clipped out. There's like one major cliff bad, but other than that, playing in the trees was super safe, especially if you're kind of playing around on the stoke chair and heading back towards the stoke chair, not away from it. Minimal cliffs. You can do lots of exploration. The snow wasn't amazing when I was there, so I didn't get the chance to ski like the mid mountain runs that kill the banker. I know it's pretty renowned. It looks a lot like Insanity at Whistler, just a lot of pillows and drops and trees. But the upper mountain, the trees have perfect spacing and then kind of the middle or mountain, they tighten up and I can't speak to exactly how fun they are, but I'm sure they're epic because I could see going up the gondola of how fun those runs are and how many natural hazards and features you'd be able to blast off. Alpine bowls. So you've got three primary bowl options at Revelstoke, mainly two. So you've got the North Bowl. You've got the kind of the South or Greeley Bowl, I believe it's called. And you've got the separate Reality Bowl. However, the main ones are the North and the South. The South Bowl, you can ski by climbing up to like the sub peak and skiing down that side, or you can traverse further into it with your avi gear and kind of really get a ski on that and go towards the Montana Bowl. The North Bowl was kind of really the truest bowl skiing experience inbounds on the resort. You can either hike up to the top of the sub peak and ski down through the North Bowl, or you can just kind of traverse across and kind of ski the North Bowl and all the lines in there and keep traversing and loop around and find lines down. Super sweet Alpine Bowl, but not as many bowls as say a place like Whistler. Lift lines. I was there on a weekend and had absolutely zero lift lines. There wasn't any fresh snow, but I just lapped all day long until my heart was full and my legs were exhausted. There are lift lines though, so be aware on a big pow day, the lines can be huge for the Gandhi. You're still going to get a bunch of sick pow laps and people are going to tire out quickly. But lines do exist at Revelstoke and it's becoming busier and busier every year. The more people that hear about it and the more people that kind of move in, the more development that there is on the mountain has, you know, has gotten busier and expect lines on powder days like any mountain. But on the regular average Joe days, even a sunny day, you're not going to get these massive, painful Whistler-esque lines. Backcountry, side country access from the mountain resort itself is absolutely phenomenal. But we went off into the Montana Bowl kind of when we were there and did a line through there through the trees and ended up back down the base of the resort at the car. You can go way further to the backcountry on either side out of the North Pole. You can just see a bunch of lines in there. I'm not that familiar, but let me tell you, the backcountry access overall in Revelstoke is amazing. There's lines just a stone's throw out of town. You can stand in the downtown core and look up and around and all these different lines. There's the fingers. On the other side, we skied the Bank B shoulder, which was super fun. There's just lines everywhere. And then if you drive 45 minutes, you're at Rogers Pass, which is like a mountaineering Mecca. So backcountry skiing is absolutely dialed in Revelstoke. And I think that's a big reason a lot of people move out there. The sled skiing access, backcountry access is just phenomenal, you know. So the views aren't as amazing, in my opinion, as like a kicking horse or a Whistler Blackcomb or somewhere in the Alps. But the views are still pretty unique and pretty sweet. What I found the most cool is the view of just the Columbia River and you're skiing down seeing this huge river and the contrast with the snow. I thought it was super cool. So like not the craziest views on earth. And if you're going up strictly for Instagram photos or for sightseeing and not skiing, then you probably want to choose a different mountain for sightseeing. But for skiing, you know, the views are great. Just what you need. Two, the Smashburger at the top of the Revelation gondola is apparently extremely delicious. I only ate a PB&J while I was there, you know, just that's what I do. But I did eat at a couple fun spots in the town. The town of Revelstokes got a pretty sweet ski town vibe, nice and small. I ate at like, I think it was called like Beer House or something and had a pulled pork mac and cheese. It was pretty bomb. And then I ate at somewhere called like Big Eddie's and got some big fried platter. Also delicious. And I've also had Pizza and Revy. All good choices. You can't really go that wrong. It's a small, small town and small spot to eat. If you're looking to get boozy, the locals watering hole is called The Last Drop. Day tickets are like 160 bones for a single day at Revy. But if you've got an Icon Pass, you get seven free days. So I met a lot of Americans up there ripping that Icon Pass scam. So that's one option. Otherwise, you know, you're just gonna have to bite the bullet by a three day pass and pray for powder. I think Revelstokes a really solid option for like the whole family. If you're doing a family trip or somewhere you want to teach your family to ski. I think it's not too big and overwhelming that you're going to like lose your kids. And you can feel pretty safe, you know, in the end of the age where you can let them off on their own. Obviously skiing with a buddy and on those deeper days. But you can feel safe that they're going to know how to get around and you can all meet at the bottom, you know, at the lift of the stone chair, the Gandhi. It's not too crazy and not too intimidating. It's kind of a good spot for families to ski. Some people can go on a blue, other ones can go on a double black. There's all those options. You can meet at the bottom of the chair and keep lapping the chair, meeting up and having a good time. So definitely a good family hill. Revelstoke, in my opinion, is one of the most well-rounded ski resorts out there. It's not as gnarly as like a kicking horse or a Whistler Blackcomb. You're not going to get as much like extreme terrain or like hyper alpine, unique, scary stuff. But what you are getting is some insane fall line. Like I said, that tree skiing from top to bottom or those groomers from top to bottom, it's epic. It's unobstructed, just fall line shredding. And what I really think gives Revelstoke that even, you know, deeper advantage over other mountains is just that backcountry access from town. So you're not going to spend every day on the resort as you kind of get more and more into skiing. You're going to shake up your days depending on conditions and go hunt powder in the backcountry on a sled or on your ski. So I think Revelstoke opens like a lot of doors and opportunities. Even though it's getting more busy with tourism, there's still a lot of homies in the line. You can tell people are yelling at each other, getting stoked, riding together. It's the kind of place you go up the Gondi by yourself. And then by the time you're skiing down the mountain, there's seven of you doing like a train of hits all the way down the mountain because there's just that many people, you know, skiing the mountain. So it's great that it kind of has that deep rooted community feel and vibe. Definitely the real deal. And I'd go back in a heartbeat and you should make sure that if you're doing a powder highway trip, it is absolutely a stop or it's a great place to just choose to say, I'm going to do a week here. Revy's a great spot to rip a week and keep those fingers crossed that you land on a powder day. Let me know in the comments what you think about Revelstoke. If you've skied it, I'd love to hear your opinions. If you want to watch me skiing the actual mountain, the full video of me just skiing Revy's right here. You can also check out us skiing the Begbie Shoulder and in Roger's Pass on Video Peak. So I'll put those videos here. If they don't fit in here, I'll put them in the description. Stay spicy, keep on shredding and I'll see you next time.