Wow. Just got back from a crazy couple days in Revelstoke and it was hectic, to say the least. The whole idea for the trip came about pretty last minute as I came home from Anaheim on Tuesday with reports swirling about this huge dump of snow we were supposed to get. I was so pumped and with a solid 4 inches of snow on the ground at my house when I woke up Wednesday morning it looked like the powder gods were smiling. But, with the snow came warm, moist, tropical air and it warmed up super hard. After waiting around all morning at Baker for the patrollers to bomb the whole mountain, we finally got on the chair at 11 and the snow was heavy and sloppy to say the least. Knowing that things weren't going to cool off soon I started checking the weather forecasts and things were looking grim for the entire Coastal area.
On a hunch, I figured I'd check the Revelstoke weather and it was dumping hard up there. With my friend, Kevin, living up there this winter it seemed like a good time to hit the road and ride what's probably the sickest terrain in BC. Sev was down to go so we hit the road, heading east for the Selkirk mountains. Unfortunately, the drive would not be an uneventful one. Though it was warm out and raining right up to the top of the pass on the Coquihalla, the temps dropped rapidly as we approached the outskirts of Merritt. Sev even noticed it, and as he was saying, "It feels like the temp just dropped a bunch," we were spinning out of control down the highway. We smashed into the median before flying off the road and into a rock bank. It was scary to say the least as we hit super hard, but luckily the truck was still running.
I looked over to my right and there was a truck off the road about a hundred feet away. After looking to the left I also noticed a car off the road. The black ice had claimed many victims, there was no way to prepare for it. The police officer who came to the scene said we were the 9th accident he'd been to that evening and there were two other officers on shift. After an hour we finally got pulled out and by some complete fluke the truck still seemed to drive just fine. It looked a little rough with the side of the box smashed in and the bumper bent 90 degrees on the one side but after taping the tail light back on and driving into Merritt we decided that there was no point wasting the crash for nothing so we pressed on. It was a late night but after dodging small slides east of Salmon Arm we finally made it into Revelstoke at 2:30 in the morning.
Waking up at Kevin's after a couple hours of sleep it was time to shred some powder. We were first in the gondola lineup at 7:30, ready and waiting for the lifts to open at 8:30. We weren't the only ones looking to score fresh tracks as all time snowboard legend, Johan Ollofsson, was one of the next riders to roll up to the line. Finally, after what seemed like forever, we were up at the top of the mountain and ready to ride untouched snow. I rode the longest continuous pow run of my life, just going and going and going, until I looked around and realized that no one was around. I had ridden past the lift and on down towards the mid mountain station...doh! So, I ended up riding half of the day by myself just enjoying the insanely deep conditions and cursing the fact that I hadn't brought a pow board until I finally ran back into Kevin later in the day and he showed me some mind blowing runs. By the end of the day my legs were so destroyed I could barely walk but it was so worth it. We capped the day off with a trip to the pool to soothe our aching muscles in the hot tub and some beers at this sweet snowboard shop/bowling alley/pub called The Cabin.
Revy wasn't immune to the warm temps that were working their way up from the coast and Saturday morning dawned with the highway in and out of Revelstoke closed due to avalanches. Instead of waiting around all day and hoping the highway opened at 4 like it was supposed to we decided to take the back way, down south across Arrow lake and through Nakusp and then west to Vernon. I'd always wanted to check this highway out so we figured now was as good a time as ever. At least we'd be making our way in the general direction of home instead of sitting around and waiting. It took us 11 hours but we finally made it home and the drive was definitely worthy of the billing. I can't wait to go back and spend more time exploring the area.
Here's a few photos from the trip:
There's no way we were getting out under our own power
The tow truck was lifting off the ground but eventually he was able to yank us free.
A little packing tape to hold the light on and we were good to continue the rest of our journey.
This is what happens when you leave your camera in the truck all night and then try and take a photo.
Thanks Kevin for all your hospitality!
This is the first ferry that crosses Upper Arrow lake at Galena Bay. It's about a 20 minute crossing but we missed it by one car so we waited almost an hour.
Artsy photo from the deck of the ferry.
The scenery is quite spectacular from the ferry but it was mostly socked in so we couldn't see too much of it. Definitely going to come back.
South of Nakusp we hit the second ferry of our trip to cross back across Arrow lake as we traveled along Highway 6 back to Vernon.
The Needles ferry is a cable operated ferry so these cables on both side guide the ferry as it makes its five minute journey.
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