B2L2

Back from our first visit to Revelstoke and Kicking Horse.  No, we aren't going heli or cat skiing, just stayed at the resort.  Those are too rich for our blood, maybe we will try cat skiing eventually (when there is a storm).

Snow condition was okay but no new snow for the whole week before our arrival means there was no powder.  Good that the weather stayed cool and dry which kept an okay snow condition.  Hard pack and not icy.

Kicking Horse really kicked our ass.  Basically only one green run, which is their cat track.  Blue runs are all steep groomers, which is long and STEEP.  Even the easiest one will be rated as black in local mountains.  Tons of black and double.  Chairlifts aren't linked up properly.  This means you jump off the double black at the top 1/3, you then ski the steep runs down the 2/3.  Total is ~1000m vertical each run.  Sooooooo tiring.

We decided to take an easy day off to Lake Louise after Kicking Horse (1.5 hrs away).  Turned out to be a bad decision.  Worst snow condition at Lake Louise in 4 of my visits.  Rocks here and there, snow was worse than Kicking Horse.  Good that we only do a day trip.

Next stop was back to Revelstoke.  An even bigger vertical mountain, top to bottom run is like 1500m vertical.  Chairlift is slightly better this time, at least we could loop at the upper mountain and the back face.  Again only 1 green and groomers are all STEEP.  Here they don't rate black into single or double, only black color.  Once we entered a crazy narrow couloir, one ski width and ~300m vertical drop, and it was a marked black run.  Without able to see the exit, we decided not to take it but ended up with a tough time to get out from the cliff zone.  After that, we just spent most time in the bumps and trees.  The back blow needs a short 5mins hike or more depends on which way you want to enter it.

Both Revelstoke and KH is not mean for beginner.  Even for intermediate, you wouldn't quite able to enjoy it.  But if you're looking for challenge, they offered a lot within the chairlift or with only a short hike.

- Brian

B2L2

Whistler @ Feb 19th

Reported to have a pretty good snow fall towards the end of last week, so we were all hype up.  Oh well, fog kept following us whole morning, and more important we never noticed the 10-15 cm of snow on popular runs.  Some groom runs were even icy.

The new snow must still exist somewhere.    Lucky that after lunch, we were able to go up Harmony.  Jumping down from the Harmony ridge granted you ankle deep powder everywhere.  Although fog still come and go, all you could hear was screaming joy and people laughing like a kid there.  Fun, although I still struggling with powder half of the time.  

B2L2

Revelstoke doesn't rate their blacks into single or double, so that's one problem to compare.  

To give you some background, our group is all skier and we like moguls.  Front side, all black doesn't requires jump or hike.  They are either constant steep pitch groom runs (like beginning section of Saddle@Whistler but 5x the length), or mogul (similar to Ratfink@Whistler)

Back side is basically one bowl like the size of Whistler Bowl followed by all tree runs at the bottom.  If you want to enter from the very top, you will need to hike >15 mins (we didn't do that).  If you want to enter from the side, you could do that in ~1 mins hike.  You don't need to jump in (unless you want to).  Even the narrow couloir that we went, there is no jump, just super narrow and long.

Mogul runs?  In between the trees of the back side, there are many choices.  The open area under the chair also gives one long mogul runs (took me like 5mins to come down, so tiring).

B2L2

sko, did you make the jump?    This is not going to happen in my life.  It's scary enough just to watch.

Will be at Whistler again this Sunday.  Forecast say it is going to warm up a bit but still 30-50km wind.

B2L2

I was thinking about this one since I saw it few years back as well.

And for the wind pack natural kicker, my HK friends loved it so much that they spent two hours on it one time.  Just keep hike back up one after another.

B2L2

True that Cypress is as expensive, $39 + tax for night skiing that what I spent last night.  

Cypress @ Feb 29th night
* 35cm overnight made the powder call but unfortunately could only go after work
* Sky chair wasn't open until 6:35 (perfect timing) but it was jam with people
* untouch powder disappeared in 15 mins
* the powder was knee deep up at Sky but I have to admit that I suck in powder that deep, so tiring

B2L2

Whistler 10-days Edge card is $62/per day (and have a bonus day before X'mas).  Of course, after you add gas and other things, Whistler is more expensive but not by a lot.

B2L2

Once you advance more in your snowboarding, you will understand why people prefer going to Whistler even they have to pay more, wake up earlier, drive longer, etc, etc.  That $20 difference is nothing.  

For me, I go wherever my friends go.

B2L2

And what's the reason your friends prefer Cypress over Whistler?  I'll be surprise if ticket price is the top reason.

B2L2

This season, I spent 8 days at Whistler and 2 nites at Cypress so far.  With 3 days left on my EdgeCard, I'm looking forward for the coming spring pass (usually available by end of March, which is a full pass for Spring).  So by season ends, I probably hit 16-17 days.

In my group, most of them were on their 13-14 days already.  The max should be 18 by yesterday.

Back to snow condition yesterday (March 5th)

Forecast said rain shower and freezing level at 1800, so we were expecting a wet wet day.  Turned out the forecast was wrong, freezing level drop down to 800m but still very strong wind.  It mean snowing all day long.  Peak chair didn't open and Harmony was white out all day.  You could feel the powder everywhere (boot deep), just not able to see them.    Front side has cut out powder on non-groomer (few cm), and we spent most of our time up and down on Emerald.