When the Ski Mountain team turned up at Revelstoke we knew very little about this new resort, but there was an air of expectation... and it was snowing!  What followed was two days of some of the best tree skiing we've had.  Despite the car park being rammed full we still managed to find some good fresh stuff and the photos probably tell the rest of the story!

Building at Revelstoke only began in 2007 and the resort has been built ontop of a tiny collection of lifts previously called "Powder Springs".  The Powder Springs lift system included a small chair and a t-bar giving just a few hundred feet of vertical.  By contrast, the new Revelstoke lift system covers the old Powder Springs area with the bottom short leg of a very long gondola.  Revelstoke only has one gondola and two chairs, but don't let that put you off because with those three lifts you get as much vertical descent as even some of the bigger Alpine resorts - 5620feet or 1713metres!  To put that massive height drop in context, Kicking Horse is 1260m and Lake Louise is around 1000m.  Believe us when we say that a fast run without stops from the very top to the very bottom takes quite a long time and really stuffs your legs!!

When we were at Revelstoke (February 2009) building work was still underway at the lodge but the gondola and chairs were fully operational.  When you get to the top of the Revelation gondola its worth remembering that they call this "Mid-Mountain".  The two chairs - "The Stoke" and "The Ripper" manage to cover a huge area of great tree skiing and some open powder bowls over the back of The Stoke (especially with a short hike).

One thing we would caution about though is the long flat sections for snowboarders - the bottom traverse from the North Bowl to The Ripper and the long traverse back from The Ripper to The Stoke is a bit of a pain in the ass on skis, let alone on a board.  Having said that, if you're a good boarder and you get good snow all will no doubt be forgotten!

We would recommend Revelstoke to small teams of good skiers looking for great action in the trees - though we wouldn't bother unless there was decent snow on the way.