Ski & Snowboard

In the 1890s, Swiss mountain guides introduced the sport of skiing in Revelstoke. The first skis in Revelstoke were described as “Norwegian Snowshoes”; they were wooden skis made of barrel staves. In 1891 the Kootenay Star described the “snowshoes” as “thin slats of wood about three inches in width and ten feet in length, and turned up in front like the bows of a canoe”.

The Scandinavians brought the love of their sport to the small town of Revelstoke and started the Revelstoke Ski Club – the oldest ski club in BC. The earliest records of the club is a photo of 6 skiers with “odd looking contraptions tied to their feet” in 1891, but the official club status happened in December of 1914.

By 1915, it was the largest ski club in Canada. Revelstoke was known as the “Capital of Canada’s Alps”, the main draw being the big ski jump in Mount Revelstoke National Park. Local legend, Nels Nelsen, was leading the charge, and in 1916 broke the world ski jumping record with an impressive jump of 56m/183ft.

An avalanche program was created to keep the railway safe from avalanches. The program was run by Fred Schleiss, who knew right away that it was critical for his crew to be competent on skis in order to do their work.

A man named Hans Gmoser arrived from Austria and became the first person to start promoting backcountry skiing in Rogers Pass. He filmed his ski and mountaineering adventures through the 1950s and 60’s and would show his films around North America, trying to generate interest for his new ski company, Canadian Mountain Holidays, which would eventually become the largest heli-ski company in the world.

In 1964, an Austrian ski instructor named Paul Mair and a local logger named Don Sinclair opened the Mount Mackenzie Ski Hill on Mount Mackenzie, the site of Revelstoke Mountain Resort today.

A double chairlift was installed at Mount Mackenzie Ski Hill.

The new Revelstoke Mountain Resort opened, boasting the most vertical of any ski hill in North America.