Need Info on Nelson, Revelstoke and Red/Rossland

F5*

F5*

Active member
Im doing research on different ski towns and resorts. Im looking to gain a lot of backcountry experience. Could locals tell me some things about their town and their resort and backcounty. Im looking for things like, annual snowfall, weather patterns, whats the terrain like, how busy the resort is, does it get tracked out quickly, is there a park, and how is it? When does the season start and end. The size of the town, things to do, jobs, rent and real estate. How is the community? Are people friendly, any hardcore shredders who ride BC. How is it in the summer?

I ve already done a lot of research about these places but I want to hear some things from the people who live there.

Thanks alot for your help and I ll beef up your karma!!!
 
I live in Rossland and ski at red.

The backcountry here is really accessible and fun, you can get to the peaks of 4 different mountains within about 45 mins from halfway up the mountain and there is SO much other bc terrain in the area if you are willing to drive a couple kms.

Rossland is a pretty awesome place to live (ive never lived anywhere else), I think there’s like 3500 people maybe 4000. In the winter, pretty much everyone just skis but there are also beer league hockey teams, curling, bars, and a pretty sweet swimming pool just 10 mins down the hill in Trail. In the summer you can hike tonnes of mountains, bike (really good biking in and around Rossland), golfing, and 3 super pimp lakes within an hour drive. The people here are for the most part really nice and there is a good solid vibe in town. For jobs, the ski hill always hires a bunch of liftees who actually have it really good, cant really help with other jobs. Rent for an apartment is about 700ish amonth and for a house about 800-900, houses are around 250000-300000avg. To buy.

Red is a really fun place to ski the whole season (beginning of dec-april) Really, really good tree skiing, open glades, theres some super gnarly steep stuff, steep groomers with fun rollers, couloirs, shitty moguls, sick pillows, and some mellow stuff. The park is kinda shitty, but really we only ski that in the spring when its slushy, its still really fun though. Most of the time, theres not very many people skiing except for American holidays and spring break, and you can find sick pow like a week after a dump.

i think there are graphs or something on the red website about annual snowfall and how much it snows a month.

and feel free to pm me if you have any questions, check out my pictures for some shots from the park and the mountain.
 
yea... what jeff said. minus the growing up here part... i didn't do that "growing up" thing in b.c. ...i lost my point.
oh yea - the bar scene is kinda lacking - but the house parties make up for it. and if you live on the right side of town you can ski to your door from the hill which is always a nice novelty.
 
sounds super sick. I dont like the bar scene and I love house parties. Oh yea, and skiing too.

Do you guy going into the back country a lot/know a lot about snow science?

And Darryl did you ski at Blue Mountain?, cause thats my home base.
 
I don't know a lot about snow science, I don't got in the BC that much, but I'm starting to more and more.

Theres lots of people here that do though.
 
yea i go out of bounds... but as far as my knowledge - got my AST1 and been playing around with snow the past couple years, but I haven't really set anything substantial off - so it's all theory. i'd like to think that i know my stuff, but who knows, one day i could get it wrong, but we'll worry about that when the time comes eh?
and yes - i grew up in creemore and lived 12min from Blue Mountain, skied there from 97 - 03 (skied at mansfield before 97). before moving out west.
 
Can you tell me more about the snow and the terrain? Does it get tracked out really quick? I was looking at the snowfall chart and it seems like there are long gaps of no snow, what do you do then?
 
It takes a while for all the snow to get tracked out. Like the main runs get tracked out the first 2 or so days after a dump but theres tonnes of other terrain that isnt marked that stays fresh for a week or sometimes more, you just have to find a local to show you where to go.

When theres like no pow left at all, we ski park, bomb groomers and just haul ass on the choppy off piste stuff, the runs never get like really icy so you can still shred them really fast and its fun.

And if its been like a long time since the last snowfall like in the middle of febuary we just build little backflip jumps everywhere and have crazy backflip lines.

Oh and the backcountry stays really fresh for a long long time, and you can access 4 different mountains easily from a ridge off the hill that ski back into the resort or to the highway.

I hardly ever get bored and ive been skiing here for 15 years. (I'm 16)
 
adding on to what jeff is saying: from the top of the mountain you can ski all aspects, so the wind will never shut down a pow day - it just moves it to a different side of the mountain. not liking the conditions on the north side, check out the east or south side.
and if it's been two weeks without snow (odds are it's 'cause there's a big high pressure system from the north over the area and noones getting snow (including your precious coast mountains) - it happened last year mid february, happened the year before in january (with the big mountain comp sitting right in the middle), and during the winter of 04/05 we got hit by the pineapple express mid january causing it to rain up to something stupid like 3000m across the province - followed by a month of blue bird. I was in Fernie that winter and we were d'loading the bottom half of the mountain in the middle of winter. Bunk!It is true though that the rossland range (south monashee mountains) doesn't get as much snow as all the neighbouring ranges (selkirks, valhalah's, purcells), but again, as jeff said - there's pockets of snow that remain untouched for a longer time at red then most hills (we have min. cut runs so all the good terrain is hidden from the tourists - and the fact that we basicly don't have trail signs helps keep the crowds away.
if heaven forbid you run out of the pow pow inbounds you got the backcountry. granite (the main mountain that makes up red mountain resort) is connected to 4 other peaks via a ridgeline that connects them all. Most of the runs in the backcountry bring you back inbounds, the other ones bring you down to the road (where you can have a car waiting for you or just hitch the couple km's back to the hill/town). If you're feeling more adventurous you can keep going north on the ridgeline and hit up to 4 more peaks that are actually higher in elevation then the previously mentioned peaks.

 
This is all sick info. Thanks a lot. Sounds like its good snow and not a lot of tourists. Is there anything else that makes red the shit that I should know about? I hear revey is pretty sick, how does it compare? And the most important question of all, are there any girls in rossland?
 
Redmountain is an amazing hill skied powder the hole week i was there. just endless cliff and pillow lines and if u want some awsome backcountry just take a walk your possibilities are endless id like to say its better the whistler, you dont have the croweds or the line ups and like i said i was still skiing powder a week after the snow fall......... all in alll my parents loved it so much there they bought a condo at the resort. its a liad back do things when u want style there
 
because i am too hungover to tell you too much in depth about whitewater, ill let you know a little bit.

-we have two lifts

-not as much terrain as red, but what we do have is super fun.

-i ski the following: shitty groomers with side kickers, copious amounts of glade and and tree skiing, ridiculous pillows, short techy mini-golfish lines, cliffs hucks, and our rail park.

-the backside is an extremely accesesable, safe, and mind blowing traverse just out of the boundries. Here lies the the epic pillows, and pretty much constantc waist deep. after your backside lap you find yourself back on the road goijng up to the hill and you hitch a ride back on up with the locals.

this is all i really feel like mentioning for now. we have fun. we have a good group of people all over. come hangout.

skiwhitewater.com

and we're doing absolutly horrible for snow right now, but then again, where isnt in BC right now. fuck.
 
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