We spent the night in the Revelstoke RV parking area. We woke at 6:30am and it was snowing – there were 2” of new and it was snowing hard. We bought senior tickets on line for $50 each. The gondola started at 8:30am and by then there was 6” new. There was a short line and then we loaded the second gondola to the MacKenzie Outpost. Everyone headed to The Stokes quad. Rather then join the masses on the higher trails, we started going down on The Last Spike and then down Wooley Bully and Snow Rodeo. The trails were groomed overnight but now had 8-10” of fresh powder, and we had fresh lines. It was fantastic. The weather forecast was for a warm front this afternoon and warmer tonight, so this was the time. We rode the gondola with guides and a client who also did the runs and agreed that it was perfect timing. The Stokes chair had 10 people in line. The top of Stokes was windy, very windy. We skied down Critical Path and couldn't see with the wind and blowing snow. The Ripper chair had the best runs for skiers/boarders in the trees plus the backcountry folks. The Ski Patrol avy report was not good with the danger level at considerable. The forecast is for Friday to be dangerous with avy levels high due to the snow and rising freezing level. We spent about 3 ½ hours skiing and then headed to the
The van had 10” on the roof and hood. We got out of the potholed parking lot and onto the road with snow spilling onto the windshield. The snow was still coming down but was getting warm. The snowplows had not plowed the roads yet. We went to the Aquatic Center to soak in the hot tub and float in the river run. We got back to the van and the snow had turned to rain. The weather forecast was for rising freezing level to 1900m. We are spending the night in Revelstoke area. Friday is a day to drive to Lake Louise. It will be nice to stop by Rogers Pass and remember our past touring days there, plus the heli trips to backcountry ski huts.
February 6: It was raining last night at the Revelstoke parking lot. The snowplows cleared the wet snow all around us (very close!), and the rain ponds were getting bigger. We drove on Hwy 1 and are heading towards Golden and Lake Louise. The road was plowed and the edges were piles of rain-soaked snow. It was raining and the road had a river of water along the whole stretch from Revelstoke to Golden. In the 20 years I have driven this road I have never seen a stretch with rivers of water like this. We saw the artillery teams setting up and closing the road at times. We stopped at Rogers Pass for van.
a break and saw the the road was now closed going west and east lower down. We continued east with no other traffic on the road going that direction. The heli pads for Great Heli Skiing and Fairy Meadows had cars parked with 12” of wet snow on them. It will be a different day going east, not sure what we'll find weather-wise.
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. Revelstoke stoke!