Revelstoke

The longest vertical in North America

Revelstoke Mountain Resort occupies Mount Mackenzie just outside the town of Revelstoke in British Columbia, and it is owned by Northland Properties. Its defining statistic is simple: a vertical drop of 1,710 m, the longest descent of any ski resort in North America. Our data puts the base at 512 m and the top at 2,225 m, and that gap is what every other number here has to be read against.

The skiing

Sixty-nine kilometres of pistes and six lifts do not sound like much for a resort with that reputation, but they describe a mountain built around long lifts and very long runs rather than a dense network. Six lifts covering more than 1,700 m of vertical means each ride is a serious climb and each descent a serious undertaking; skiers who like to lap short pitches will find the rhythm quite different from a European linked area. Our data flags Revelstoke for off-piste skiing, and that is the point of the place: the marked runs are the framework, and the terrain around them is why people come. The pistes are not graded in our figures, but a mountain of this shape is not one beginners choose. Off-piste is also the only feature our data records for Revelstoke besides scenic views, which is a fair summary of the resort’s priorities.

In size Revelstoke is about the same as other major resorts such as Breckenridge and Panorama, and roughly a third of Whistler-Blackcomb. When the planned build-out is complete it will cover 10,000 acres, about 40 square kilometres, which would make it the largest ski resort in North America. The top station at 2,225 m helps snow reliability on the upper mountain; the base at 512 m is very low, so conditions at the bottom of the vertical will vary far more than at the top, and a full top-to-bottom run can pass through several kinds of snow on the way down. The season runs from December to April.

Setting

The resort is on the edge of the town of Revelstoke rather than in a purpose-built village, so the town provides the beds and the evenings. Our data flags scenic views, which on a mountain rising 1,700 m from its base needs no elaboration.

Practicalities

Kelowna (YLW) is the nearest airport in our data, roughly 141 km away as the crow flies, so most visitors face a road transfer after the flight. No official resort website is on record.