All pictures: Courtesy of Eleven
Nowadays, there are such a lot of heli-ski operations to select from it’s onerous to know what makes every one distinctive and worthy of your hard-earned {dollars}. Some operations lean on their terrain or common annual snowfall whereas others lean on the visitor expertise with the gourmand meals and lavish lodging. At Eleven Revelstoke, you get all of it—300,000 acres of tenure within the Pinnacles, Valhalla and Central Monashee mountains, a 2-to-3 guide-to-guest ratio, a luxurious lodge within the coronary heart of downtown Revelstoke stocked with five-star service and a mean of simply 5 down days a season. A Canadian quadrangle of heli-ski excellence, in case you ask us.
Whereas “roughing it” is how some individuals wish to expertise distant components of the world, Eleven understands that’s not everyones cup of tea. Therefore, the experiential journey firm developed its method: Unbelievable mountain adventures capped off with the comforts of dwelling. Eleven owns and operates 13 lodges around the globe with the identical consideration to element, devoted to offering utterly distinctive and customizable experiences for each visitor—together with the Revelstoke Lodge.
Basecamp to a few of the greatest—and deepest—snow on the earth, the Revelstoke Lodge is now open for the 2025 season and utterly renovated to satisfy the Eleven requirements. Initially in-built 1911 by Hector McKinnon—who would go on to serve ten phrases as Revelstoke’s mayor—the renovation of the Revelstoke Lodge pays homage to the constructing’s historical past of being the nicest place on the town. Adorned with native artwork, the Revelstoke Lodge options 12 visitor suites, together with three new mezzanine-style “captain suites,” which suggests 12 is the utmost variety of company at a time. Whether or not you and a pair buddies are in search of a semi-private ski trip or you’ve got the means to e-book out the complete place, Eleven Revelstoke is essentially the most customizable luxurious expertise of any operation within the space. A chosen ski locker room geared up with boot driers and charging ports in all 12 lockers, 4 therapeutic massage remedy rooms, three bars, a ground-floor restaurant, a totally geared up health club in addition to a sizzling tub, sauna, steam room and chilly plunge spherical out the lodge choices for the entire self care you could possibly presumably want between ski days. Eleven Revelstoke is stocked and able to create the heli-assisted trip of your goals, however the lodging are solely half of the equation.
In partnership with Revelstoke-based guiding operation Kingfisher, the Eleven Revelstoke Lodge is a die-hard skier’s white dream. One of many hardest elements to heli snowboarding is climate. It’s the only dictator of whether or not you may fly or not, which finally ends up making heli snowboarding fairly the gamble. At Eleven, the usage of A-Star helicopters not solely retains the ski group small—three company and two guides per hen—it’s additionally a maneuverable helicopter that may begin and cease simply, which suggests storms don’t all the time pose an issue. This distinctive capability to fly in most climate is what piqued the curiosity of Eleven, in addition to trade legend Mike Hattrup, the clothing store’s Director of Snowboarding. U.S. Ski and Snowboard Corridor of Famer and star of the 1988 Greg Stump blockbuster Blizzard of Aahhh’s, Hattrup is aware of good snowboarding and the way it must be delivered.
Whereas out heli-skiing with co-owner of Kingfisher, Matt Devlin, within the Central Monashees of the operation’s tenure, it grew to become blatantly apparent how a lot he and his guides genuinely love what they do. To maximise the tenure, Devlin and his crew spend roughly $100,000 a summer time glading terrain and organising new touchdown zones with a view to make flying and snowboarding potential on any given day all through the winter. That funding annually finally ends up saving the operation roughly $300k in flight time as a result of pilots and guides know the place to land and ski, relying on climate and snow circumstances. When Mom Nature permits, you may ski from the peaks of the excessive alpine all the best way to the valley ground however when storms roll in, mid and decrease elevation tree snowboarding satiates the necessity to schuss. When you’ve ever spent a day inside ready for the inexperienced mild to fly, heli snowboarding within the timber is healthier than no heli snowboarding in any respect. And because of a mean of 700 inches of wanted chilly smoke a yr, the one tracks you ever ski over are from another person in your group.
It doesn’t matter what you and your crew are in search of in regard to terrain and depth—from steep couloirs to quick laps and mellow meadow hopping—the Eleven Revelstoke Lodge has the helicopters, guides and tenure to make it occur. Eleven’s tenure covers many of the terrain between Revelstoke and the Kelowna airport which suggests you may even ski in your means there. Company can throw their boots on as quickly as their airplane lands, get picked up through helicopter and instantly dive into the wonderful snow and terrain. The identical goes for the day you fly out. For a premium value, you may bag some last laps on the best way again to the airport and board your airplane with a head stuffed with helmet hair and an ear-to-ear grin.
There are a lot heli-ski operations providing some mixture of snowboarding and lodging, complemented by the scent of jet gasoline, after which there’s the Eleven Revelstoke Lodge—a heli-ski expertise all it’s personal. Flight examine: put together for sending.
