The landscapes surrounding the town of Revelstoke are some of the finest and most pristine in the world. The past two months have been spent exploring, but also refining some of the runs we are getting more familiar with. Life can be a real adventure if you step outside and go for a long walk (or heli;). Here’s some of mine.
Pow Town 2013 from Skee Films on Vimeo.
An amazing season of riding mountains.
This is what I work for. Play time in the mountains.
These images are all from the Selkirk and Monashee Mountain Ranges surrounding the town of Revelstoke.
As you can see in this video, there is no shortage of good people to go exploring with around here. And of course, no shortage of mountains to choose from either.
I like making videos and I love skiing so this is my vid showing some awesome days (and nights) skiing deep cold smoke powder in the year 2012.
Highlights Revelstoke 2012 from Skee Films on Vimeo.
My friend Mickey Ross from N.Z was in a photo contest over 3 days held in Revelstoke. I managed to meet up with him for a couple sessions during the days and the last day actually turned into a full on powder day out ski touring in the Monashees across the valley. With his abilities on both the photography and the editing side, he won the contest and took home a bunch of cash and a season’s pass to RMR for next year. Guess he has to come back next year. Good job Mickey! It’s been a great couple years for him in Revelstoke and he’s torn to head back to NZ, but he’s leaving us with this contribution to the 2012 Revelstoke Photographer Showdown.
Revelstuck from Mickey Ross on Vimeo.
Since the beginning of the new year I had been busy with the Freeskiing World Tour/Freeride World Tour that came to Revelstoke Mountain Resort.Just an awesome event and felt lucky to be a part of something so sick off Mackenzie Peak with a ton of my friends around to hi-five and watch as the world’s best Freeskiers charge down a massive face/venue. And all the while, I was craving just goin skiing pow with my buds. No pressure, just free skiing.
So about a week after the event left town it started to puke snow all the way to our doorsteps in town. When it snows “to town” that means it’s probably really dry powder up high. Something skiers consider “favorable conditions”. So BAM! A bunch of storm(s) snow around Revelstoke and we just couldn’t get enough. Deepest week of my life!! Never had consecutive days of over the head powder like this, with the terrain we hit and how steep the trees were, can’t beat it. Having fun with the new pack mount I put together.
Some of the clips turned out pretty good I thought considering the hopping around and jumping off cliffs…Hope you enjoy the edit!!!!!!
Thanks January, you’ve been good to us.
Really pumped to have been a part of this EPIC freeski comp this year.
Thanks to RMR Patrol for opening up the East Face of Mackenzie to let 35 competitors shred it up!
A job well done.
Check out the action from the Finals.
Nothing like a trip to hut with a bunch of friends to kick in the Holidays.
I’ll let the video do the talking.
Revelstoke Mountain Resort is officially open for business! Good to have the lifts back hauling everyone back up to the top for more, and more, and more pow.
That’s how it all kicked off (for the second opening) on Saturday Dec 3rd. Cloudy skies, short lift lines and lots of fresh powder. I arrived at the bottom of the gondola at 7 am since the lifts were to open at 8:30. Unlike the Sneak Peek Weekend opening prior to this one, the line-up was a mere 20 people compared to the 100 that would’ve been there at that same time the weekend before. Into the gondola we go after a cheer from the crowd when they let people on at 8:25. Climbing up in the gondola I knew it was gonna be a good day since we had already been out a bunch of times to test the goods on the other mountains around town. The snow was light on top with a good stable base under it of around 150cm depending on where you look. Was on my own for a couple runs after losing the original group, only to meet up with another group, and tag along with them for a few runs. That’s pretty much how it goes at RMR. “No friends on a powder day” seems like a bit of a rough slogan but it’s kinda true around here. It’s kind of an unwritten rule amongst friends to just go for it instead of constantly waiting for everyone in a large group. You’re only as fast a your slowest husky one might say!
So after a fairly socked in but powdery Saturday opener, along came Sunday and brought us our precious Vitamin D. With a blue blazer sky and cold enough temps to keep the snow light and fresh, it was go time. Hitting the spots I rely on in these “high pressure” situations, I was able to find the good snow all morning and hit a couple chutes and cliffs along the way. Thanks to the RMR Ski Patrol for finally opening Gracias ridge and North Bowl to make the weekend complete.
The day was still clear at 1:30pm and was looking like it would hold so I rushed down to the truck, dropped by the house quickly in town, grabbed the skins, tripod and the camera and made my way over to the other side of the valley. The reason why? I had an idea of catching the sun setting on the resort so that I could add it to a little video I wanted to make of the weekend. I have been out taking time lapses a lot lately and this one was looking to be good. Away I go, up the Macpherson X-country trail in hopes of getting up the side of the mountain high enough to get some perspective for a good shot. As I’m gearing back up and putting the skins on in the parking lot, I notice the sun approaching the horizon and time is running out. Whatever energy I had left went in to getting up that trail as fast as I could. Made it to an open spot after a km or two with enough room to zoom in over the trees and not all, but some of the footage worked out. That’s time lapse photography; tricky and time consuming. The reward though is the ability to speed up and slow down the weather from that day. Not always, but sometimes, it comes out looking like magic.
Even though these clips aren’t all magical, they do show how good the conditions were for opening weekend, and that skiing is one of the funnest things you can do in winter.
Winter’s back and the snow has been somewhat relentless this Movember. This past week I have been catching laps with what seemed to be a different group of friends every day. Having a bit of a goal to skin at least 1000m (3280 ft) in a day I gained approximately 8600m (28000 ft) in the past week (like climbing Mt Everest from sea level) to get in shape and also relish in the powder snow that keeps falling here in the Columbias. I can’t say it enough that getting out into the mountains and ski touring with friends is almost unbeatable in my world. Putting procrastination aside for a moment to do something for yourself (with friends) is always worthwhile especially when you’re able to find awesome Movember Pow Stashes right out the back door here in Revelstoke.
Keep the hype goin this winter! Go get some!!
Thanks to Dynastar, Lange, Look, Mountain Hardwear and Revelstoke Mountain Resort for their support.
Enjoy the video featuring myself (skiing on Dynastar Slicer 181 cm) and some guest appearances from Chris Rubens.
So I’m back after a summer of working and playing like most other people. I spent the last week figuring out imovie and final cut and put together a seg from last season.
I got a gopro camera last fall and this is the result. Thanks for checkin it out. and if you like it share it with your friends.
Just down the Selkirks from Revelstoke, B.C lies a few peaks and ridges above Meadow Creek. These peaks and ridges just happen to be chuck full of pillow lines and couloirs, and all the other features that you could imagine an extreme winter playground would have to offer. After finding out that SWS is the oldest catskiing operation in the world, I can see why. Three days of deep Selkirk powder, tons of varying terrain and our guide was absolutely nailing it with our zone choices. Filming “The Highway” courtesy of VShaw Productions has been a lot of fun thus far no question. After a couple days in January with Selkirk Tangiers Heliskiing I haven’t had the pleasure of filming with VShaw lately, but they have been extremely busy nonetheless. Filming at a bunch of other spots along “The Powder Highway” like Baldface Lodge, K3 Catskiing and Whitewater Ski Resort just to name a few. Joey Vosburgh and Mike Hopkins were the team this time around and I was super stoked to have these two guys on the trip. Vos rides a snowboard or two, and Hopkins rides shifty’s off everything, maybe something he learned along the way of his pro mtn bike career. That kid’s got hops!!! Big thanks to the crew and SWS for a killer Selkirk powder sesh. Pretty much the stuff dreams are made of. Enjoy the webisode and stay tuned for the movie release of “The Highway” next fall.