Holy crap, that was fun.

Revelstoke opened for a sneak peek last Saturday and Sunday, and it seemed that everyone within 1000000ks showed up to check out the mountain.

Click read more to find out about it.



First up, an apology. Getting Stoked did not have a camera out on the weekend for fear of smashing it, and the decision proved to be a correct one, with some epic stacks, including a memorable mid-air flight directly into a massive tree which would have turned the official blog camera into something more closely resembling, well, dust.

The crew rolled up in the new van, Ron Burgundy, surviving the drive up the icy roads with bald summer tyres, getting to the mountain just after 8am, with first lifts kicking off at 8.30am.

It came as something of a surprise to see a few thousand people already there, with the line snaking out the resort, past the car park and towards the road up to the mountain.

A cheer broke out as we approached the line, and after graciously acknowledging the applause we realised it was for the first lift of the season. Once the embarrassment subsided, we waited for a good 45 mins to get on the gondola which would take us up the mountain, then after a quick board down to The Stoke chair, there was another 30 min wait to get up to the top.

Despite the lines, everyone was buzzing - it had been a long time coming, the first run in Canada in nearly three years, so spirits were high and we were duly rewarded with our first run.

Here's a link to the trail map which will help make sense of the rest of this post.

Paz and Stu headed left out to the Separate Reality Glades and, after planning to stick together all day, lost each other within three or four turns. Not the best planning but the powder was knee deep and the run was steeeeeeeep, a brutal welcome back to snowboarding after a looong time away.

It was clear from the outset that Revelstoke is a place that can challenge anyone. Steep lines, soooo many trees, drops, bumps, jumps, everything you can imagine, if you're game there's plenty of places to find fresh lines.

After a sketchy first run, Paz and Stu met up at the lift, waited the customary 30 mins to get a ride back up, and did it all again. The cobwebs were gone by the second run and despite losing each other again, we both came out with massive smiles on our faces and far less new bruises than the first run.

After that, a quick hike out to the North Bowl was in order and despite missing the drop in point to Meet the Neighbours, we could see how amazing the North Bowl was, with untracked lines everywhere, cliff drops, rock drops, trees, just insane stuff everywhere. We took a line along the top of the cliff (see the North Bowl trail map) which had heeeaps of fresh lines in itself, easily the best run of the day to that point.

A quick lunch break, then the crew all rode together after lunch, heading right towards Roller Coaster, hitting the trees near Iron Gladen then ducking the rope to get find the most amazing, untouched, waist-deep powder among the trees, down to an access trail which required a quick hike back to the lift.

We rode this run for the rest of the day, finding fresh lines each time and generally being blown away by the quality of the snow this early in the season.

It was an amazing start to the season and everyone is super amped for Friday, when the mountain opens for good.

Apologies again for the lack of photos, the camera will be coming up soon to show off the mountain in all its glory, but for now here's some pics from the the mountain's Flickr page, showing just how radical the day was:

Line at The Stoke:




Opening day pow:




Pics sourced from Revelstoke Mountain Resort's Flickr Page.