Professional Freeskier Tom Runcie Trip Report, and video from a RV road trip to Revelstoke, BC for the 2012 Canadian Freeskiing Championships.Photo: Drew Rouse

It was 3 am, 38º F, and pouring rain in Butte, MT. Photographer Trent Bona and I had just finished filling our 25′ C-class RV up with $150 worth of gas for the fourth time since leaving Denver 16 hours prior, and spirits couldn’t have been higher. Desperate to escape a very dry early season in Colorado we had rented the RV from RV America in Aurora, CO with hopes of getting our powder fix in British Columbia. Butte represented our third shift change of the night, and I moved to the cab-over bed to let Trent take us the five remaining hours to Sandpoint, ID where we had plans to meet up with Caleb Mullen and hopefully ski the first real powder of the season at Schweitzer Mountain Resort.

The trip had been in the works for months, but somehow when dealing with skiers it always seems to come down to the last minute. This was no exception, and we finally put our deposit on the RV a little more than 15 hours before showing up in Aurora to move in and drive north. Former CB resident and fellow Moment athlete Louise Lintilhac and her photographer fiancé Dana Allen agreed to fly into Kelowna, BC and move into the RV when Trent and I got there. With everything coming together mid-day Tuesday, I called Trent and asked if he would be ready to leave for a two week trip to Canada at 5am Wednesday. Amazingly enough, we were both able to organize our lives into a couple enormous duffel bags and were leaving RV America by noon, right on schedule.

Unfortunately, not everything can go according to plan, especially on a trip like this. As we drove into Sandpoint, the rain never changed to snow. Even 4000’ above at the top of Schweitzer it had rained all night before a morning temperature drop turned the mountain into a sheet of ice. The next morning we were making great time on the road to Kelowna when a tandem trailer truck jackknifed across the road, blocking the pass above town, forcing a 4 hour detour through the Okanagan valley. We were rewarded with a beautiful drive through interior BC’s wine and beach resort country, but after over 30 hours on the road we were starting to wonder if we were ever going to get to ski powder.

Shot with a Drift HD helmet camera.

Ski RV – Road Trip to Revelstoke 2012 from Tom Runcie on Vimeo.

Saturday morning dawned with the “skiRV,” as we had dubbed our home and transportation, parked in the Whitewater Ski Resort lot, blanketed in a very welcome 6” of fresh snow. Like kids at Christmas the four of us practically sprinted to the lifts. Armed with one of Whitewater’s finest as a guide, we were taken immediately to the goods and started our trip off with a 1500’ powder run. Whitewater is set at the end of a box canyon, with lifts going up either side but not up the end. The result is an extensive sidecountry area between the two main lifts that offers up to 3000’ of powder skiing, depositing those willing to make the short hike from the top of the chair right back at the base lodge. Though high avalanche danger kept us from exploring some of the more interesting options in the Whitewater sidecountry, for the four of us fresh out of the snow-less southlands it was such a joy simply to be able to ski safely in the trees and hit the occasional cliff without worrying about finding barely-covered stumps and rocks.

After our second day of real winter, we made the 300 km drive to Fernie, BC to meet up with fellow Freeskiing World Tour competitor Luke Nelson. Fernie offered a perfectly situated RV lot complete with hookups, adjacent free showers (a relief for the ski RV crew), and easy slopeside access. Once again we were taken straight to the best the mountain had to offer, and spent the day shooting photos in breathtaking light among the technical cliffs and chutes of Fernie’s five enormous bowls. Happy with our photos and turns for the day and with rumors of snow falling to the north we piled back into the RV and turned our sights to Kicking Horse Mountain Resort, 300 km north in Golden, BC.

Kicking Horse is in the process of expanding operations, but we were highly impressed with the terrain we found. The main mountain is accessed via a 4100’ gondola. From the top of this chair, four long parallel ridges fall back towards the base with nearly endless skiable chutes and tree shots dropping into the bowls to the sides of the ridges. The icing on the cake for me was the run-out to the base area, which kept soft cold snow all the way down while remaining playful and fun. After a six hour day of lapping the whole vertical drop of the mountain, we were able to ski back to within a few feet of our RV. A quick dinner and we were on our way again. We drove over Rogers Pass, famous for its consistent snowfall, and were amazed at the 30’ tall snow banks that guarded either side of the road. It seemed a fitting welcome to our group of (until recently) snow-deprived skiers to Revelstoke and the first stop of the Freeskiing and Freeride World Tours.

For more of Tom’s adventures, go to: www.tomruncie.com