Revelstoke Mountain Resort??

[Blashyrkh]

Looks like there's going to be a new resort in Revy. Anyone got any beta? The news said it was going to cost $1 billion and take 15 years to build. First lift opens next year. Pretty kickass area if it happens.

http://www.discoverrevelstoke.com/

[hick]

Isn't it going to be called Jumbo or something like that? The terrain is currently used by a heli op. I remember reading soming about this in SBC Skier a season or two ago. Sounded immense.

[mc_roon]

there used to be cat skiing on the mountain while plans were being finalized. Its a massive mountain with some seriously sick terrain - but a lot of it isnt that steep. Some great tree skiing if i can remember correctly.

[ccharp]

I was in Revy a few weeks ago and it sounds a though the first lifts won't be ready in time for next year. I hope that's wrong, but that's the buzz in town at the moment. I'd love to find out what the real scoop is as well....

And ya, currently the bottom of the mountain has one chairlift and is called Powder Springs. The top is being used for Cat Skiing. They've cut a few runs up there and gladed most of it, but don't like people ski touring up

[teamdirt]

They reported 500,000 acres of ski terrain

Thats 100 times the size of Whistler/blackcomb-2 and a half times the size of Las Lenas

Don't forget North America's longest vertical

[taynton]

Isn't it going to be called Jumbo or something like that? The terrain is currently used by a heli op. I remember reading soming about this in SBC Skier a season or two ago. Sounded immense.

No, that is another planned mega resort in about the same mountain range as Revelstoke, but a few hundred km to the south.

[skifree]

Planned, but not yet likely. They're seeing alot of opposition from various groups. Even Scott Neidermeyer is putting his name behind one of these protest groups.

[filthyfrenchbum]

Just found this on newschoolers:

"k so everyones been wondering whats going to be going down for the new revelstoke resort on mt mackenzie. My dad's company he works for, Vic Van Isle, is building all of the condos and buildings at the new resort so he has all the plans for the condos and mountain. They have already ordered a gondola and it will start to be installed in the springtime of 07 and be up and running by the new season. This gondola will start alot earlier then i said previously in the other thread. When i looked over the plans today, the first gondola will start almost in town. It will start about 10 minutes out of town and continue all the way up to whats called "the wheather station" if youve ever been cat skiing at cat powder then you have most likely stopped here in the morning. From the wheather station there will be an upper village with condos,resteraunts and all that stuff. There will also be three heli pads there where the new Selkirk Tangliers will be located. The owners of the new mountain bought Selkirk Tangliers and the main location and where all the helicopters will launch from is the upper village of the new resort. From the upper village there will be several chairlifts branching off from there up to all the bowls/chutes and places where cat skiing usually occurs. these chairlifts will not be up or operational for next season but should be up in 2 years if all goes according to plan.

This is all true information, i looked at the plans myself no more then 3 hours ago. This will be a huge mountain and will exceed whistlers largest vertical drop in north america. Be prepared for pow, pow and more pow once this hill opens!"

[altasnob]

http://www.skipressworld.com/ca/en/d...ml?cat=Resorts

Revelstoke, BC (Ski Press)— It’s almost official. Revelstoke Mountain Resort is poised to announce the development of its new ski resort—one it claims will have the longest skiable vertical in North America.

On January 16th, 2007, the Revelstoke Mountain Resort development team and representatives from chairlift manufacturer Leitner Poma Canada Inc will announce a multi-million dollar gondola and chairlift agreement that will finally put steel on the mountain at Revelstoke Mountain Resort—formerly Mt. MacKenzie.

The offical announcement will take place on Tuesday, January 16th, 2007 in Revelstoke, BC, located 415 kilometers west of Calgary and 641 kilometers east of Vancouver.

The Kootenays area is known for its big snow, big terrain, and big vertical. It’s the home of Cat Powder Skiing.

The Revelstoke Mountain Resort Presentation Centre, offering information about real estate opportunities at this master planned resort destination, will also officially open on January 16th, led by the Sotheby’s International Realty Canada team.

[Gripen]

Looks like there's going to be a new resort in Revy. Anyone got any beta? The news said it was going to cost $1 billion and take 15 years to build. First lift opens next year. Pretty kickass area if it happens.

http://www.discoverrevelstoke.com/

Dale- Roadtrip this time next year?

I've skiied the top with the cat skiing operation, its going to be an incredible place.

[soul_skier]

i too have taken more than a few runs with the catskiing op, and if all goes as planned, this place will be amazing. Possibly amazing enough to be where I do some ski bumming years.

[LeeLau]

Bunch of horseshit fed to you by condo hucksters.

[mc_roon]

All of these pictures were taken in late December:

Possibly amazing enough to be where I do some ski bumming years.

an interesting idea

[Singel]

Wow, I had no idea how huge this is going to be, I figured it would just be a medium sized hill with a few lifts and huge pow potential. I'm surprised very few (myself included) seem to have really heard about this before now.

[Eldo]

B.C. ski hill finally begins $1B resort

Kerry Williamson, Calgary Herald
Published: Wednesday, January 17, 2007
A tiny one-lift ski hill in Revelstoke is set to get a $1-billion makeover, transforming it into a four-season resort complete with luxury real estate and a golf course.
Once completed, Revelstoke Mountain Resort will be one of the largest ski hills in Canada, with the longest skiable vertical run in North America.
The development follows more than two decades of frustration and failed deals, and is expected to have wide-ranging effects on a town with a history of boom and bust.
"It's a beautiful day for Revelstoke," said Mayor Mark McKee. "We have been waiting for years for the dream of this resort to take shape, and now it's finally happening.
"It creates a lot more opportunity for the people here, and it gives more reasons for people to relocate here. It is just huge for Revelstoke."
News of plans to develop Mount Mackenzie, the peak that looms behind the town, is nothing new to the people of Revelstoke, who have seen myriad plans, developers and investors come and go.
However, on Tuesday they finally saw something tangible -- the signing of a $22-million gondola and high-speed chairlift contract with Canadian firm Leitner Poma, and the resort's acquisition of renowned heli-ski company Selkirk Tangiers.
The development company, chaired by Denver property developer Don Simpson, has bought CAT Powder Skiing, which it intends to operate on Mount Mackenzie.
Crews have already begun clearing runs on the mountain, with the first eight-person gondola and quad chairlift set to begin carrying people up the hill next winter.
The resort will also feature a multi-phase residential village at its base, including more than 2,000 hotel suites, 1,500 condo units, 850 townhomes and 550 single-family lots. An 18-hole golf course and a heli-centre operating from the village are also planned.
When completed, it will have 115 runs and 21 lifts, with more than 200,000 hectares of skiable terrain. Its vertical drop of 1,829 metres will be the longest in North America -- beating out Whistler-Blackcomb -- and the fourth largest in the world.
Capital investment is expected to surpass $1 billion.
"I think it is something that the people of Revelstoke have been looking forward to for a long time," said Simpson, during a midday announcement in downtown Revelstoke attended by about 1,000 residents.
"I think it will be a world-class resort . . . maybe, eventually, the best one in North America."
The resort does have its challenges, however. It will compete with world-renowned ski hills such as Lake Louise and Sunshine Village, and it will have to attract skiers to a town that is more than a five-hour drive from Calgary, the nearest major city.
Visitors to the resort will have to contend with the at-times treacherous Trans-Canada Highway, through both the Rogers Pass and the Kicking Horse Canyon to the east, a stretch of highway that has seen numerous fatal accidents in recent years.
That problem could be eased, however, if the B.C. government goes ahead with plans to build a $350-million tunnel through the canyon, a project that could be finished as early as 2014.
Resort proponents point out the ski hill is just two hours from Kamloops Airport, which now welcomes international flights, and a 45-minute drive from Sicamous and the tourism destination of Shuswap Lake. And it does get snow, averaging 12 to 18 metres a year.
Developers are banking on interest from both the United States and Europe to make the resort viable.
Revenue from real estate sales will determine how the hill will be developed. Phase 1 of the resort's real estate, which will include 60 condos, is expected to be released in the spring.
McKee is confident that if they build it, they will come. "If you can't fix it, you feature it," he said.
"We live in a fantastic part of the province, and getting here is going to be half the fun."
Tuesday's announcement comes more than two years after the B.C. government signed off on the resort's master plan. Approval followed extensive review by the public, local and provincial governments and mediation to solve tenure and land ownership issues.
Simpson is well aware of the hill's past troubles that have seen little development on Mount Mackenzie in the last two decades.
"I'd just say I understand their skepticism," he said. "But just watch out."
Kevin Krueger, B.C. parliamentary secretary for rural development, said Revelstoke Mountain Resort could do for Revelstoke what Sun Peaks has done for his riding of Kamloops-North Thompson. The resort will spend about $40 million on mountain upgrades in the next three years.
"It creates a tremendous economic boon, tons and tons of jobs, and lots of opportunity for people in both the construction and operation of the resort," he said.
But Krueger said the new resort will not take away from Alberta ski hills.
"I think B.C. and Alberta are mutually complementary. We are building each other up."
Residents are excited, but wary.
"I've been here for 30 years, and they've been talking about it for at least 25," said local businesswoman Dinah Collette.
"There's always somebody going to do something, and then there is nothing. But there is something concrete this time, something that is actually happening."
Collette said the town desperately needs a developed ski hill to boost business, which depends largely on snowmobilers and heli-skiers during the long winter.
"Hopefully it will increase sales. We are all just hanging on with our fingernails, because we have so much slow time," she said. "Sledders come here, they drink, they sled and they sleep. They don't do much shopping."
Locals also fear the resort will push up demand for real estate, driving up prices and increasing their cost of living. Average house prices in Revelstoke already hover around the $300,000 mark.
The local council is already developing an affordable housing strategy, as well as other options, including increasing density to deal with increased demand.
"It's one of the most important issues in our community in the coming years," said McKee.

[PNWbrit]

Bunch of horseshit fed to you by condo hucksters.

Absolutely.

[extreeski]

While they may be condo hucksters trying to get people to sink $ on the ground floor I'd like to go in a few years when they've got all 6000 vert open.

But I'd stay in a nice old hotel/motel.

[Mudfoot]

Skied with Powder Cats several times and they have fantastic terrain. You get in the cat at the dinky Powder Springs ski area, climb several thousand feet, and then do 2,000 laps up high while looking across the river at the CMH Monoshees' terrain. Last run is 5,000 vert back down to the area. They are currently in operation. Didn't see it in any of the other posts, but I think the name of the new area is Mt McKenzie, which suposedly will have over 6,000 vert, but you pretty much have to ski to the river to get it.

Skied Kicking Horse at X-mas and lady from Revelstoke told me Mt. McKenzie construction is to begin this summer. KH Condo construction guy said the goverment is spending $0.5 billion in the next ten years improving Hwy. 1 through the canyon to Golden, including the tunnel. I saw huge bridge abutments under construction. The road will not cut a lot of driving time, just make it less hairy. Current price of slopeside condos at KH is $400/sq. ft. compared to Whistler at $1,500.

The problem with KH and the new resort is that there are no population centers to the west, so they need to get people from Calgary/Edmonton and have them drive right past Sunshine and Lake Louise in Alberta for another couple hours. The answer seems to be an airport, but the only flat land is in Revelstoke along the Columbia River, and look at mc-roon's pictures, the valley is socked in like that alot. Revelstoke is currently a laid back town that has got a serious case of boomtown fever.

Kicking Horse is a fantastic mountain with no crowds yet. Check out a trail map, 70 inbounds chutes and 50 of them you can traverse to without climbing. Plus you can bc ski off the area from the gondola or high chair. You also have Rogers Pass (best bc skiing on the planet) between KH and Mt. McKenzie. If they can figure out how to get people there it will be one of the biggest skiing meccas on the continent, and undoubtely ruin Rogers Pass in the process.

If you want to check out the area before they fuck it up, a trip I have done and would highly recommend is fly to Calgary, drive 3 hrs. to Golden and ski Kicking Horse, then another hour up to the top of Rogers Pass and stay at the lodge in the National Park next to the Avalanche Center, bc ski, then another hour down the west side of the pass to Revelstoke and cat ski and/or heli ski by the day. You get the best of every type of skiing within 2 hrs. of each other and you never have to leave the Trans-Canadian Hwy, so we just rent a 2-wheel drive car. You can tailor the trip to your budget and the snow conditions and pull it off way cheaper than skiing in the States.

[mntlion]

also what is being shown are PLANS, as in we would like to do this, sometime in the future, if revenue will allow it, etc.

just like every new company has plans to be the next big thing, and take over the world.

Might have lift access for next year, or the year after, but the full plans are 10-20 years away, if at all.

other HUGE issues are that reve is 4 hours away from any large airport (calgary) and has a lot of closed roads between it and Calgary. I can't count how many times lake louise to Field, or golden or to reve has been closed due to weather, slides, ice etc. Don't think that roads closed for 1-3 days will help sales of condo's, tickets, etc.

On the way from Calgary to reve you have to go past Norquay, Sunshine, Lake Louise, Kicking horse, and the turn off for panorama, Nakiska, jasper, Castle and Fernie. Too many other places that are working at less then full compasity, that are way closer, with better roads.

Current large construction delays include from castle mnt to lake louise, then coming into golden, and then to pass from golden to reve was all delayed this summer badly.

[extreeski]

also what is being shown are PLANS, as in we would like to do this, sometime in the future, if revenue will allow it, etc.

just like every new company has plans to be the next big thing, and take over the world.

Might have lift access for next year, or the year after, but the full plans are 10-20 years away, if at all.

other HUGE issues are that reve is 4 hours away from any large airport (calgary) and has a lot of closed roads between it and Calgary. I can't count how many times lake louise to Field, or golden or to reve has been closed due to weather, slides, ice etc. Don't think that roads closed for 1-3 days will help sales of condo's, tickets, etc.

On the way from Calgary to reve you have to go past Norquay, Sunshine, Lake Louise, Kicking horse, and the turn off for panorama, Nakiska, jasper, Castle and Fernie. Too many other places that are working at less then full compasity, that are way closer, with better roads.

Well for this portlander.... I only have to pass Whitewater and Red on my way up to Revelstoke. I can see an amazing road trip Red-Whitewater-Revelstoke.

And the fact that the other's are closer to Calgary.... BONUS!!!!!

Lets just hope global warming doesn't melt all the snow.

BTW, MTn lion... your cmh explosivs were all over red mountain when I was there last month.

[teamdirt]

also what is being shown are PLANS, as in we would like to do this, sometime in the future, if revenue will allow it, etc.

just like every new company has plans to be the next big thing, and take over the world.

Might have lift access for next year, or the year after, but the full plans are 10-20 years away, if at all.

other HUGE issues are that reve is 4 hours away from any large airport (calgary) and has a lot of closed roads between it and Calgary. I can't count how many times lake louise to Field, or golden or to reve has been closed due to weather, slides, ice etc. Don't think that roads closed for 1-3 days will help sales of condo's, tickets, etc.

On the way from Calgary to reve you have to go past Norquay, Sunshine, Lake Louise, Kicking horse, and the turn off for panorama, Nakiska, jasper, Castle and Fernie. Too many other places that are working at less then full compasity, that are way closer, with better roads.

Current large construction delays include from castle mnt to lake louise, then coming into golden, and then to pass from golden to reve was all delayed this summer badly.

Mntlin-the plans consist of direct flights into Revelstoke-which like you said are weather dependent. Apparently the airport can handle larger planes and the resort plans to invest the money into the airport. the community is apparently all for it but yes-how distant in the future would they have the money to build not only a resort but now an airport?

[L7]

25 years ago I heli skied out of Revie and the big word was what was about to happen with the resort. 15 years ago I cat skied mount Mackenzie and the big word was what was about to happen.

Like said above, it's a long ways for any population base to support and finance such a development so if it happens this time there is no reason to think it will happen fast. I'd put my hat on at least one 'financial crisis' before most of it is seen through.

[PNWbrit]

I was there a year ago to look at property in the area. We chatted to the then owner of Powder Springs. At that point he was getting lined up to sue the developers/new owners because they hadn't come up with the money owed him.

Like Mtn Lion says it's all just plans and a long way off if ever. Then they have to get over the huge issues of location and access. When even the slickly marketed operation at Kicking Horse is struggling to make money what hope does Revelstoke have?

They certainly have amazing terrain but that doesn't necessarily equate to $.

[Eldo]

also what is being shown are PLANS, as in we would like to do this, sometime in the future, if revenue will allow it, etc.

just like every new company has plans to be the next big thing, and take over the world.

Might have lift access for next year, or the year after, but the full plans are 10-20 years away, if at all.

other HUGE issues are that reve is 4 hours away from any large airport (calgary) and has a lot of closed roads between it and Calgary. I can't count how many times lake louise to Field, or golden or to reve has been closed due to weather, slides, ice etc. Don't think that roads closed for 1-3 days will help sales of condo's, tickets, etc.

On the way from Calgary to reve you have to go past Norquay, Sunshine, Lake Louise, Kicking horse, and the turn off for panorama, Nakiska, jasper, Castle and Fernie. Too many other places that are working at less then full compasity, that are way closer, with better roads.

I agree. These are also many of the same reasons I still don't think Jumbo will ever amount to much. They might eventually put in a few lifts and some condos, but they can't possibly sell enough real estate to pay for all the lifts in the master plan. Like it or not, these days it is real estate that pays for the infrastructure (I.E. lifts) that we skiers are most interested in.

KH has done okay, but at this point they have even stopped talking about adding additional lifts anytime in the foreseeable future.

[Blashyrkh]

Hypothetically speaking: If climate change starts to make a negative impact on the snow at some low-altitude low-latitude ski areas, the snow at places like Golden and Revelstoke may make the areas more feasable.

However, for now, I can't really see Revy beating out all of the other resorts already mentioned for an adequate piece of an already inadequate customer base. It's a long drive both ways on some pretty haggard roads.


Ethan, I'm down for a road trip, Revy Resort or not. Wanna come pick me up in Vancouver?