Laps of luxury

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 02/04/2016 (3732 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

“Trees please” was my response to the guide’s query as to where we should ski. Geoff, a veteran ski-school employee at Revelstoke Mountain Resort, was happy to oblige, guiding run after run of steep and deep powder skiing in and out of the trees on a mild early March day.

But I wasn’t at this southeastern B.C. mega-resort just to indulge a passion. The primary mission was to experience two glorious nights at Bison Lodge and report my findings. Chef-prepared breakfasts? Check. Twenty-eight-foot indoor climbing wall/fireplace? Check. Theatre room with tiered sofas, hide-a-bed and big-ass screen? You bet.

While every inch of the 6,800-square-foot timber-frame beauty of a lodge, which primarily caters to the heli-ski crowd, is grand and the place is outfitted with an abundance of amenities, what really stands out in Bison Lodge is the railway theme. Especially the grand staircase, with its handrails forged from reclaimed rail lines. This place is steeped in Revelstoke’s railway heritage.

Lodge owner/builder Ray Redekopp also built neighbouring Bighorn, the property recently voted ‘World’s Best Ski Chalet’ at the World Ski Awards. So he knows a thing or two about realizing a vision on a grand scale, and speaks about Bison Lodge with passion and purpose. The Calgary-based developer grew up in the area and still has family there. For him, incorporating Revelstoke’s rich railway history into the mountain-side home at the resort was a no-brainer.

Private helicopter access, B.C. wine and Mt. Begbie draft beer on tap, awesome views, and a fine property manager on-site to ensure the good times keep rolling? Check. Catherine Shewchuk welcomed our small group upon arrival and made us feel right at home. It’s clear the former lodge manager at Mica Heliskiing loves what she does, which is make well-healed guests feel comfortable and welcome.

Five bedrooms, eight bathrooms, pool table, 12-person dining table in open-concept kitchen, all located just steps from the base of the resort, the only place in the world that offers lift, cat, heli and backcountry skiing from the base of North America’s greatest vertical? Check.

Where does it hurt? Few things top jumping into a hot tub with a refreshing beverage after an unbelievable day on the slopes. But a massage definitely tops the tub after an awesome day of skiing in snow that started coming down the night before and was still laying down a beautiful blanket of white throughout the day. Who was I to pass up such an opprtunity?

Feeling like a million bucks after the rubdown, I cleaned up and wandered upstairs to join some Revy-area movers and shakers who descended on the lodge for a meet-and-greet with Redekopp. The owner provided details on what went into the lodge’s construction, including the fact a fire almost burnt it down before its grand opening Jan. 20. Fortunately, the smouldering fire was discovered before much more than smoke damage ocurred.

Outdoor patio, hot tub and fire pit? Check. Heated towel racks, Toto toilets, steam showers and soaker tubs in each bedroom ensuite? For sure.

Ahh, but all this luxury comes at a cost. Currently, two packages are offered. The Leisure option is $3,600 per night and gives guests the run of the place with unlimited wine and beer on tap. Luxury, at $6,000 per night, amps up the experience with a personal chef, server and concierge, fully stocked bar, on-call massage therapist and whatever other amenities you can dream up.

For more budget-conscious Manitobans, the resort features the Sutton Place Hotel, with condo-style accommodations, a decent restaurant, lounge and shops, all just minutes from Revelstoke and the town’s many restaurants, bars, shops and accommodations. The town, nestled just off the Trans-Canada Highway between the Monashee and Selkirk mountain ranges, is located 21/2 hours from Kelowna, B.C., and 410 km from Calgary, the two closest fly-in destinations, and just a few minutes’ drive from the mountain.

The resort is truly a skier’s mountain, with incredibly long runs through mostly steep-pitched terrain, everything from glorious glades to vast, open bowls. On a powder day, I recommend dropping into the North Bowl for a few laps off the Ripper chairlift. But you can’t go wrong venturing into many of the mountain’s 65 named runs and areas. If you can’t hack the pitch, there’s always the 15.2-km Last Spike green (easy) run to get you down to the base area.

Peter Nielsen, the vice-president of operations, said over lunch he’d love it if the resort became the favourite ski destination for Manitobans. The resort, which opened in 2007, rises to 1,713 metres and offers the most vertical in North America and 30 to 50 feet of snow annually. So what’s not to like?

During the brief stay, we grabbed a bite to eat at one of Revy’s popular watering holes, the Village Idiot. We also took a brief tour of a treed area on the mountain with Snowshoe Pete, and later met Eriks Suchovs, the general manager of Selkirk Tangiers Heli Skiing — who insisted he didn’t have a great job running the operation that services the resort’s heli-skiing clientele. We also toured the Revelstoke Museum and Archives, where curator Cathy English shared her vast knowledge of the town’s history and rich skiing heritage. The Revelstoke Railway Museum is one I’d like to check out on my next visit.

Too soon, our stay at Bison Lodge was over and we road-tripped it east to Golden with a day up at nearby Kicking Horse Mountain Resort in store.

KHMR

Our arrival at Kicking Horse coincided with that of a Warren Miller Entertainment ski-film crew, which was there to spend a couple of weeks capturing the behind-the-scenes work of the resort’s safety team as they go about keeping the mountain safe for skiers and snowboarders.

Perhaps that’s why the helicopter hovering overhead on my first run scared the bejabbers out of me when it unloaded an explosive device nearby. Talk about a grand reintroduction to a place.

Unfortunately, our’s was but a one-day visit. Fortunately, Emile Lavoie was there to show off some of Kicking Horse’s finest features. The resort’s social media and events co-ordinator led me into some awesome terrain.

I kicked some ass at Kicking Horse, even conquering an extreme, double-black run in Feuz Bowl that had sent me for a terrifying 200-metre (I’m approximating) tumble on a visit during the previous ski season, when visibility on the run was near zero. On this day, after a night dumping of snow, the sun was shining bright and revealing the resort’s incredible collection of challenging terrain. To be honest, reaching the summit of the Golden Eagle Express gondola’s mountain-top vantage point, I was blown away by what unfolded below.

Over lunch, Lavoie explained the resort has room to expand on its terrain and assortment of on-slope shops and accommodations if and when that time comes. Personally, I’d like to keep the place our little secret. And I may not be the only Manitoban who thinks that way.

What are the odds you’d share a gondola ride with a bunch of people in town for wedding? Probably pretty slim. That they were fellow Winnipeggers? Outrageous. Such was the case at Kicking Horse, where surprises are around every turn. The predominantly black and double-black terrain is excellent to explore on a blue-sky day following a dump of snow, conditions we were fortunate to experience.

We took a break to enjoy the fabulous food and views served up at Eagle’s Eye, the restaurant perched on a peak at an altitude of 7,700 feet. It’s a place well worth a return visit, as is the resort, the only one on Earth (I’m guessing) that features a 20-acre grizzly bear refuge smack under the gondola.

Though word had it the resident bear had recently awoken from his winter hibernation and had been seen wandering about his enclosure, we didn’t catch a glimpse of Boo. The great grizzly and his brother, Cari, were just five months old when they were rescued in the wild in 2002 after their mother was shot by a poacher. Sadly, Boo lives there alone as Cari didn’t awake from his first winter dormancy.

Many thanks to my buddy, Scott Henderson, of dHz Media in Calgary for arranging the four-day trip to the Kootenay Rockies and two of the finest resort’s on B.C.’s legendary Powder Highway. It’s one I’ll treasure forever.

Castle Mountain Resort

“It’s the one with the two big trees in front,” said the young man who came down to the lobby after I reached him on the wall-mounted phone. Look for the one with lights on and a vehicle in front, he added, before handing me some keys and disappearing back up the stairs.

We had just pulled up to the hostel/hotel at Castle Mountain Resort in the cover of darkness on a mid-February evening and I stepped inside to claim the keys to our accommodations. Nobody was in sight, but I noticed the sign to pick up the phone for assistance.

Turns out the directions were a joke, as I spent the next many minutes idling past a row of vacation homes bordering the resort’s unlit parking lot, looking for those “two big trees.” Or a sign, any sign of an address. Alas, the second place I stopped at with lights on and a vehicle parked in front was the charm, though the “two big trees” were lost in a forest of evergreens. Note to management: Handing visitors a site map would be brilliant — like the one I found on the fridge at our comfortable, spacious, ski-in/ski-out accommodations with private hot tub.

To be sure, Castle is no Whistler Blackcomb. But that’s part of its charm as an unassuming resort that delivers the goods in challenging terrain with lots of variety in terms of ski runs, and next to nothing when it comes to attractions and activities away from the slopes.

People come to Castle to ski, snowboard or, judging by the frequent whining of engines heard during our stay, go snowmobiling. I had this resort on my bucket list for years, after reading about it in ski magazines and on the Internet and hearing some first-hand accounts. It’s a gnarly place with great terrain, antiquated chairlifts and a dearth of on-site options when it comes to eating, shopping and hangin’ out. The T-Bar Pub is the best bet for grub and the only public place for a drink or two and a bit of socializing.

That said, it’s a great place for people serious about skiing. Shame it didn’t snow during our three days there, because the place has some superb slopes.

It took a 13-hour drive from Winnipeg to get to the resort’s location in southwestern Alberta near the town of Pincher Creek, about a 90-minute drive from Lethbridge and just this side of the Crowsnest Pass from Calgarians’ favourite destination, Fernie, B.C.

A mid-week visit gives you the place almost to yourself. On days when the omnipresent winds are blowing strong enough to shut down one of the resort’s three chairlifts, you can always ride the T-Rex T-bar, Canada’s longest. Or, take advantage of one of few ski resorts in Western Canada that offers snow-cat skiing.

The early March trip to Revelstoke and Kicking Horse was sponsored by Calgary-based dHz Media, Bison Lodge, Revelstoke Mountain Resort and Kicking Horse Mountain Resort. The early February Castle trip was partially sponsored by CMR.

rob.knodel@freepress.mb.ca