Conditions Report
All pictures by Lee Lau or Sharon Bader
It’s no secret that this has been a poor winter in BC. El Nino has hit us hard. Usually even if coastal BC gets too warm, the BC Interior stays cold enough that snow quality stays high.
This season isn’t the case. Warm air hit pretty much the entire province. However, of all the interior BC resorts, Revelstoke Mountain Resort has held up better than most.
When we skied temperatures were just starting to get back to the usual lower temps with Ripper temps going back to 30ºF and Peak temps to 23ºF. 2″ fell on our last day on February 2 with another 4″ or so to fall over the course of the following week.
We won’t lie. It’s not exactly triple overhead blower pow right now at RMR. In fact it’s rather April like conditions. But there’s snow. It’s soft. On the groomers it’s fast and rippable.
Compared to most other resorts in the province, RMR is doing well. Another hot tip is to look for reciprocal pass treatment. For example, if you’re a Grouse Mountain passholder you get two free days at RMR (blackout dates apply to many of these so do your research)
A good way to play this is to ski the Ripper in the morning while everyone heads to the Stoke Chair then later move to the Stoke. Be warned however that although the slush bumps are soft character-building treed tufts poking through at lower elevations.
Another positive is that the burgers and fries at the Outpost at the top of the Revelation Gondola are $15/ and big and juicy and good! There’s also fantastic food at places like the Rockford and the Woolsey Creek Bistro in downtown Revelstoke. Also there are lots of amazing poser locations for your souvenir gnome.
Here’s an origin story for RMR’s webcam gnome that’s a tad different from the website version. Some say that it may have started when a certain garden Gnome from a senior’s yard decided to go for a walk.
Gnorm then magically appeared on the RMR webcam. Marketing liked it so it stayed. In fact other resorts liked it so much that other little totems have also surfaced (Kicking Horse’s horse, Silver Star’s fox, Whistler’s stock price chart). Things went well till one day Gnorm disappeared! Oh no!
But Gnorm returned. In pieces. But with two pages of pictures and stories. Gnorm travelled and had fun, on Denali and Shambala and other cool and interesting places. Since then Gnorm has been reborn in different incarnations.
Often imitated, never duplicated, OG gnorm lives on in the patrol hut but you can get your own at the retail shop.
During this trip we were hosted by RMR at the Sutton Place. It’s convenient, luxurious and well-appointed. It ain’t cheap but consider this. A one bedroom place like we were in is $500/night (early season 30% booking discount).
If you put a family (or group) of four in there and cook then the economics start making sense. You’re on slope. There’s a pool, hot-tub, restaurants. You park once and ditch the car and off to the slopes. That quality is acceptable
