Revelstoke or Whistler?

**f2f** · 04-17-2010, 09:09 PM

oh my, how the tides have turned on revelstoke!

**Dr. Crank** · 04-17-2010, 09:21 PM

Revelstoke had a horrific year so I'm not surprised. Whistler, on the other hand, was more than adequate.

Plus, Revy is not as fun as it used to be. Too many Scandis this year

I like Saskatoon for your other post, f2f. Unless you want to catch a Riders game, then go to Vegina.

**john c** · 04-18-2010, 01:35 AM

well SHYAT! who wouldn't want to catch a rider's game in Vagina. This is one thing you definatly won't be catchin in Reveljunk. Unless you got some real good meth and hit up the strip joint towards closing....

As for it being a "poor" snow year in Reveljoke. slightly below average but it is clear at this point that McKenzie doesn't get shit for some reason. The place is a disaster and everyone but the most clueless real estate agents know it at this point. Not even cute Ausies with their mock up of high speed quads below the rain line can turn a real estate sale. As for the skiing. This joke of a ski hill had to fly competitors at their comp across the valley just to find a pitch that was longer than 500 feet to do the finals on? Enough said. The sooner they pull that gondi down the sooner it might go up a real mountain.

**frorider** · 04-18-2010, 06:38 PM

so the revy website claim of 40-60 feet 'average snowfall' is just another marketing lie? shocker.

**john c** · 04-19-2010, 10:10 AM

Fudging snowfall is standard procedure. For example, during McCollister's not for profit tenure at Jackson Hole, they used the bottom of Rendezvous bowl as their snow plot. This was very indicative of how much snow the mountain actually got as it was moderatly cross loaded and east facing. Once the place sold they quickly re upped their snow plot to the NE shoulder of Casper bowl. This spot gets more snow than anywhere on the mountain as the whole east facing headwall is blown south to north and ends up on their snow plot.....And unsuprisingly their snow totals jumped from 350 to 450 real quick....

All this said fudging 20% is industry standard or even 30% as is the case in Jackson. But what Reveljoke is doing is blatent misrepresentation and an outright lie. 40 to 60 feet is 2 to 3 times what McKenzie actually gets! This would be like if Jackson just decided to claim a total snowfall of 900 to 1300 inches a year. Or Alta, oh say 1200 to 1800 inches. or me a 16 to 24 inch cock.

**TeCeBe** · 04-19-2010, 11:11 AM

Revelstoke is what it is. One thing for sure. It isn't Whistler.

**Shaggy** · 04-20-2010, 12:21 AM

^^^ And that's the truth. There was a point where I was seriously contemplating moving to Revy from Whistler but ended up staying. A few months later I made a trip out that way and couldn't figure out what all of the fuss was about -- it's not that great, skiing wise.

If you're coming to ski and don't care about the rest: Whistler, and don't give it a second thought. If you want to enjoy a more positive, warm vibe and experience something that still resembles a small Canadian mountain town: Revy.

**RampagingMullet** · 04-20-2010, 12:32 AM

Originally Posted by john c

All this said fudging 20% is industry standard or even 30% as is the case in Jackson. But what Reveljoke is doing is blatent misrepresentation and an outright lie. 40 to 60 feet is 2 to 3 times what McKenzie actually gets! This would be like if Jackson just decided to claim a total snowfall of 900 to 1300 inches a year. Or Alta, oh say 1200 to 1800 inches. or me a 16 to 24 inch cock.

well i don't know what they get or what they report, all I know is that when i used to go to revy to play hockey 10 or so years ago, there were tunnels to people's houses in town. People where talking about the possibilty of a ski hill, and as far as we could see, it was the best place for it because of all the snow. My memories of revelstoke was epic snow, that is until the last couple years when I've gone there to ski and there hasn't been much of anything in town. maybe my memory is flawed, or maybe they just had a couple bunk seasons, or maybe both. 420 tomorrow!

**LeeLau** · 04-20-2010, 11:40 AM

Rich - the town gets more snow than McKenzie. Being in a rain-precip shadow - almost every surrounding mountain gets more snow than McKenzie

**john c** · 04-20-2010, 12:04 PM

There are other spots then Reveljunk and Whistler.

Originally Posted by john c

how fuckin boring. Everyone agrees with me? I thought Reveljunk was the second coming of Jackkson Hole. What? did everyone finally actually go ski the place and realize it sucked? Here's how I would rate em up. Excluding Whistler/Blackcomb as it is clearly the best but a beast of it's own and a total gong show.
1. Kicking Horse
2. Castle
3. tie Fernie and Red
5. Shames
6. Whitewater
7. Marmot
8. Sunshine
9. Lake Louise
last place reveljoke
lastest place Panorama

And yes Lee Lau is correct in his statement saying town gets as much or more then the summit. A meteoroligist could explain why this is as it is a localized effect caused by the fact the Monashees catch the orographic uplift and all that remains in Revelstoke is low lying fog cloud things that make their way up the valley floors then dump down low. By the time things get to the crest of Rogers there is another orographic effect occuring as it is a spine and higher. Trees? Red has 2000 plus foot tree runs cut with love over many decades. Pow? go to Rogers. Terrain? Go to Kicking Horse. Cool vibe? go to fernie. Core? go to Castle. Slackcountry? go to Shames. And this is why Reveljoke Mountain resort will fail. Not a question of if, just when.

**LeeLau** · 04-20-2010, 12:26 PM

Localized snow pillow data for the Revelstoke area has these areas all getting about the same amount of snow

MacPherson is the most - consistently. Not the XC ski area but the ridgelines above the fingers trending to Begbie

Pretty much tied for second

- Begbie
- Frisby
- Frenchman's Cap
- NRC snowplots

Very close third

- Mica
- Keystone
- Sale/Martha
- Mt Revelstoke National Park
- Fidelity
- The unnamed ridgeline just E of town = the first slidepath out of town to the south of highway

There's actually no snow pillow data for McKenzie that I can find. I think the cat ops keeps data. But I'd have to guess its half of the surrounding mountains. But that's just a wild ass guess.

Some of this snow pillow data is BC Hydro and open to public. Some is MOTH or forecastersand just for government

You know what beats the pants off all of these though? Anstey Range closer to Fish Appendages.

**f2f** · 04-20-2010, 12:31 PM

Originally Posted by LeeLau

You know what beats the pants off all of these though? Anstey Range closer to Fish Appendages.

numbers, Lee, we want numbers

**LeeLau** · 04-20-2010, 01:08 PM

f2f - Monashee Powder Cats, Eagle Pass Heliskiing all ski there. Infoex has all the numbers but its all industry-only

**f2f** · 04-20-2010, 01:25 PM

i am keen to find good open sources for water measurements in the rockies but few are available. one of the projects at work deals with a lot of HYDAT stuff for drainage basins, rivers and lakes in AB (mostly prairies) and i'm trying to combine this with environment canada's precipitation measurements, but they're few and far between. it's a pity that the US almost always has better data open to the public than canada. for example this is really cute, but it stops just before shuswap:

http://www.nohrsc.noaa.gov/nsa/js_an...rthern_Rockies

**grrrr** · 04-20-2010, 01:43 PM

How can anybody have an average of 40-60 feet? Or did they just flunk statistics that badly?

**Dr. Crank** · 04-20-2010, 01:53 PM

Originally Posted by LeeLau

Anstey Range closer to Fish Appendages.

I like it! I don't know if you're being cryptic or what, but I think I should try to change my driver's license to say Fish Appendages.

And I believe Revelstoke has stopped directly claiming 40-60ft on the hill. There is usually some fine print indicating that those measurements are taken from the Selkirks, but it doesn't tell you where in the Selkirks. Of course it's irrelevant and misleading, but it fools some.

**goral** · 04-20-2010, 02:30 PM

Yeah the 40-60 number is from somewhere in the Selkirk Tangiers tenure which technically belongs to the ski hill. False marketing for sure. On the other hand the hill rarely fudges their day to day snowfall reports unlike other places.

I think alot of the hype about the hill is still from the first season which actually was a pretty good snow year. Last year was OK but with long dry spells in Feb and March. This year was crappy and the hill isn't interesting enough to keep you occupied for long in a below average year.

For lift served skiing I'd vote many places (incl WB) ahead of Revy. If I was spending two months ski touring on the other hand I'd rather spend it here.

**bigbuds** · 04-20-2010, 03:49 PM

Revelstoke is a awsome place...

Even on a shitty snow year powder can be had.

Happy 420

**john c** · 04-20-2010, 04:02 PM

No one said revy wasn't a rad place. I am just saying the ski hill sucks.

I mean seriously? I would take the fall line off the back side of Stevens over the skiing on McKenzie. Interesting snow totals. I think McKenzie just lies directly in a micro shadow of the Monashees and well it's socked in all the time there is just moderate precip. They seem to get a third of what Rogers gets. As for their marketing. The snow totals are just the tip of the iceberg to the lies they are peddling. And a sign of a get rich quick ponzi scheme that has fallen apart. They wanted quick dough. In and out with grand promises but the hill can never deliver.

**LeeLau** · 04-20-2010, 04:38 PM

f2f - there's not much public data. I just did a quick search and all i could find was this

http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/rfc/data/

http://www.agf.gov.bc.ca/rfc/river_forecast/pillows.htm

http://carroll.org.uk/weather/ (i have no idea why its hosted here) B.C. Ministry of Transportation weather station archives - some stats from there

**duds1801** · 04-20-2010, 04:56 PM

I had a season in Whistler years ago. Mega terrain but also mega crowds. POW can be very heavy at times.

Personally i wouldn't go to either if i had some time again for a season.

JH is the place....!

**Dhelihiker** · 04-21-2010, 08:45 AM

2 months- Whistler for 7 weeks and one week in Revy.

**rush1975** · 04-21-2010, 05:54 PM

Sheeww, I really opened up a can on this one! Thanks for all the input on this guys, sounds like I want to live in Revy and ski in WB. I'm leaning towards Whistler as my main concern is terrain and snow, if I can deal with the crowds at SnowBird I should be alright. I'm definitely gonna check out some of the other resorts though.

**powski3** · 04-21-2010, 10:44 PM

It's not like the ski area is the only place to ski in Revelstoke.

Whistler village feels like a suburban shopping mall, and the maritime weather and snow kinda suck a lot of the time especially if you're coming from Utah.