So the mountain has been open for two weeks, and this blog has had next to nothing on snowboarding, despite being a snowboarding blog. What the hell?

It's not my fault, honest. I was, ah, distracted. By the epic snow. I was going to get some photos the other day, and then it snowed. Again. Woops. You understand, right?

Click read more and receive a text-based illumination (and maybe a couple of, ah, borrowed, pics) into the wonderful world of Getting Stoked's time on the hill.



First up, pics and videos will be up before Christmas. A brand spanking new (cheap) video camera arrives in the mail on Monday, so the crew's riding will soon be recorded in really poor quality film, for your viewing pleasure.

As for the hill, well, Revelstoke has shown itself to be about one thing, and it's good: trees. For anyone wanting to come riding at Revelstoke, there's a few things you'd want to know:

1. It's not particularly kind to beginners.
This is about to change with the mid-mountain opening today (read: a buttload more terrain opening up) and there's some blue runs, maybe even a green or two, and better access to the magic carpet learning area. The down side? The Crew ducked a rope and rode down to mid-mountain a couple of days ago, and after surviving a back-leg burning 30 mins trying to ride the powder all the whole way down (it's a MASSIVE journey to get to the mid-mountain), Paz and Stu both copped some serious treatment at the hands (edges?) of some hidden rocks. Moral of the story? Tread carefully down low until there's another big dump.

2. Read the weather forecast.
-10 in town could quite well mean -30 with windchill on top of the hill, it gets cold up there. When it's cold, the delicious, fluffy powder turns into angry, cold, crusty hatred powder, and everything becomes a little bit shit.

3. If you can't ride trees, learn.
It's the whole point of the mountain, check out the trail map and you'll see how many gladed areas there are. For easier trees head to Clyde's Secret Glades, which are nicely spaced but get tracked quickly, if you like steep and are lazy check out Separate Reality Glades, or if you want proper tree riding and tits-deep powder, drop in anywhere around the Ripper Chair. Flat spots aside, the tree riding is completely insane, with drops everywhere, fallen logs conveniently masquerading as big rollers, and occasionally, wide open powder spaces.

4. The cat tracks are fun.
Far and away the most fun cat tracks we've seen, with little jumps all along the sides. The only crap bit is how flat Downtowner (the path from Ripper to The Stoke) gets at spots, and many an unstrapped snowboarder can be seen fuming as skiers cruise past without offering a pole. Bastards...

As I said before, pics are on their way. In the meantime, here's some stuff the mountain photographers have taken (they're all from Dec 17, or Thursday if you roll that way, which was yet another pow day), all pics ripped from Revelstoke Mountain Resort's Facebook page.

Trees:



Fresh lines, deliciously untouched by skiers:



Looking down towards Separate Reality glades:



Don't quote me, but looks like somewhere in the North Bowl: