Skiing in cowboy country

©Reuben Krabbe

Tremblant Express picks up where it left off in its search for the most beautiful ski areas of Alterra Mountain Company’s “planet Ikon”. Alterra is the owner of Mont Tremblant resort.

After California’s Squaw Valley and Mammoth Mountain last spring, full speed ahead on Revelstoke Mountain Resort in British Columbia, and on Lake Louise and Sunshine Village in the Banff, Alberta, area.

A large resort

Does the notion of skiing the longest drop of all of North America’s ski resorts speak to you? Welcome to Revelstoke Mountain Resort and its 1,713 metres of altitude change without any flats. It’s a long, mean time on the fall line!

The resort is located west of the legendary Roger’s Pass and overlooks Revelstoke village.  Its terrain covers 3,121 acres but has only 75 runs. So long, wide glades and four alpine bowls make up a large part of the skiable terrain.

Actually, Revelstoke’s attraction for Quebecers results from this terrain, of a type rarely seen by Quebec skiers. The immense glades are filled exclusively with tall, slim coniferous trees that are well spaced, meaning that you can just keep skiing and skiing.

Be careful not to lose your companions! Clyde’s Secret, Critical Path and Powder Monkey are some of my favourites.

Another favourite is the North Bowl. The climb – only a few minutes – is worth taking and provides access to chutes, followed by ridges, followed by chutes and then by glades. Uno, Dos, Tres and Quatro, on the Gracias Ridge, are… invigorating.

The North Bowl also provides access to Greely bowl, the eastern edge of the resort. The Beauty Glades then give you the opportunity to wind things up in style.

©Reuben Krabbe

Skiing the most beautiful

Every year, Lake Louise takes the title, in Ski Magazine’s annual survey, of the resort with the most beautiful views in North America. And rightly so. When the weather is clear you can see Lake Louise from the other side of the Bow River valley.

A “string of pearls” of mountains and snow-covered rocky peaks mark the horizon. We are in majestic Banff National Park. All the superlatives you can muster are not excessive.

With 145 runs, 10 lifts, fields of snow and bowls on the other side of the resort, plus the Larch sector, which is set back a bit and tucked among abutting summits, all distributed over 4,200 acres…. That’s Lake Louise resort.

There’s nothing much more joy-producing than the Back Bowls after a snowfall. If you have your carving skis with you, try to resist the Gs on the Men’s Downhill run where the women’s and men’s World Cups of Downhill and Super G have been held since 1980.

A trip through the mountains

What an unusual ski resort, starting with the way you access it! You might think that the Sunshine Village runs await you as soon as you’ve parked your car. Not so! From the welcome chalet, which marks the terminus of one run only, you have to take a 15-minute trip by gondola along a narrow valley.

After a few minutes, the lift heads off at a right angle and climbs a gorge to an alpine prairie where there’s a hotel, the usual restaurant facilities and the lifts.

Perched high astride the Continental Divide – the dividing line for the water of the Canadian Rockies – Sunshine Village climbs to 2,730 metres. Its altitude gives it distinctive terrain, the largest part of which is above the tree line.

You ski in some places across big fields of snow, striped here and there with corridors of groomed snow. Ideal for those who like to get off the beaten path.

The area called Delirium Dive, on the summit of Lookout Mountain, probably provides one of the toughest challenges inside the skiable terrain of any resort in North America. You can only access it through a locked door which opens only if you have a two-way safety transmitter-receiver for avalanches.

You can go check it out without skis or a board. It’s pretty high-flying terrain!

 

Alain Bisson47 Posts

Journaliste depuis plus de 30 ans, Alain Bisson a débuté sa carrière au Journal de Montréal à titre de journaliste à l'économie. Au cours des dernières années, Alain fut également directeur du pupitre et directeur des contenus week-end à La Presse. / A journalist for more than 30 years, Alain Bisson began his career at the Journal de Montreal as a journalist covering economics. In recent years, Alain was also weekend content director and bureau chief for La Presse.

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