Canada’s ski country is really two countries. One is the interior of British Columbia, where storms roll in off the Pacific, drop much of their moisture on the Coast Mountains, and then hit a second set of ranges, the Monashees and Selkirks, with cold, dry snow that falls in quantities most skiers only read about. The other is the Laurentians north of Montreal, where the mountains are old and rounded, the snow is machine-assisted and the pleasure is as much about the village and the cold, bright days as about the vertical. Revelstoke and Tremblant sit at the extremes of each, and a winter that includes both is a winter well spent.
Revelstoke: the numbers are not an exaggeration
The ski area at Revelstoke opened in 2007 above a railway town of about 8,000 people on the Columbia River, roughly 565 kilometres east of Vancouver and 410 kilometres west of Calgary on the Trans-Canada Highway. Its claim to fame is vertical: 1,713 metres from the base to the top of the lifts, the most of any lift-served ski area in North America. From the summit you can ski a single fall line for the best part of an hour. The mountain reports an average of 10 to 14 metres of snowfall a year, and because the base sits low in a mountain valley, the snow at the top is cold and light while the bottom can be rain in a warm spell. Plan to ski the upper two-thirds.
The terrain is steep, gladed and largely ungroomed above mid-mountain, with long bowls and tree runs that hold powder for days after a storm. This is not a beginner hill. Intermediates will find enough groomed runs to enjoy themselves, but the mountain rewards strong skiers who are comfortable in trees and on pitches of 30 degrees and more. The season runs from late November or early December to mid-April, and January and February are the deepest months.
Cat and heli-skiing: born in these mountains
Mechanised backcountry skiing was invented in the Selkirks and Monashees. Heli-skiing began in the Bugaboos in 1965, and snowcat skiing followed in the 1970s in the ranges around Revelstoke and Nelson. The area now has one of the highest concentrations of heli and cat operations in the world. In general terms, a cat-skiing day puts a dozen guests and two guides in a tracked snow vehicle that climbs a logging road to a ridge, from which you ski untracked snow back down to be collected at the bottom, eight to twelve runs a day. Heli-skiing multiplies the vertical and the cost; a single day can cover several thousand metres of descent.
Both require you to be a confident off-piste skier and both include avalanche safety equipment and a briefing on how to use it. Book months in advance for the peak season. Revelstoke also has lift-accessed slackcountry and the famous touring terrain of Rogers Pass in Glacier National Park an hour east, which runs under a winter permit system because the highway below is protected by artillery-controlled avalanche work.
Avalanche awareness is not optional
Inside the ropes at any Canadian resort, the ski patrol controls avalanche hazard with explosives and closures, and you can ski without thinking about it. The moment you duck a rope or step out of a gate, you are on your own. The interior BC snowpack is particularly prone to persistent weak layers, buried crusts and surface hoar that can fail weeks after they form. The regional avalanche forecast, published daily through the winter, rates the danger for alpine, treeline and below-treeline terrain, and it is the first thing any guide reads in the morning.
If you plan to leave the resort, take an introductory avalanche skills course, which runs two days and teaches terrain recognition and companion rescue. Carry a transceiver, probe and shovel, and practise with them. Never travel alone, and be willing to turn around. The best skiers we know are the ones who have said no to a slope on a beautiful day.
Tremblant: village first, mountain second
Mont Tremblant rises 875 metres above sea level in the Laurentians, about 130 kilometres and 90 minutes north of Montreal. The ski area opened in 1939, which makes it one of the oldest in North America, and its 645 metres of vertical are the most in eastern Canada. Around 100 trails fan out across four faces, with the north side holding colder snow and the south side catching afternoon sun. The snowfall averages between 3 and 4 metres a year, respectable for the east, and the resort backs it with extensive snowmaking that keeps the groomed runs firm and consistent from late November to mid-April.
What sets Tremblant apart is the pedestrian village at the base, a car-free cluster of steep-roofed buildings painted in reds, greens, blues and ochres in the style of old Quebec, with cobbled lanes, restaurants and an open gondola that carries you from the parking areas to the slopes. Skiing here is a civilised, social affair: long lunches, a quiet lap on the north side, hot chocolate in the square. Families and mixed-ability groups find it easy, and the run home to the village at the end of the day is a proper cruise.
Cold in Quebec, and how to dress for it
The Laurentians are cold in a way the BC interior rarely is. January highs at Tremblant average around minus 10, nights fall to minus 20 or lower, and cold snaps of minus 30 with wind on the summit arrive most winters. Frostbite on exposed cheeks can happen in minutes on a lift. Wear a face covering, a helmet with a windproof liner, mitts rather than gloves and a layer more than you think you need; you can always open a zip. Warm up in the summit lodge every couple of runs on the worst days. The reward for the cold is squeaky, grippy snow, empty runs at minus 25, and a sky that is often a cloudless, brilliant blue.
Choosing your season
For Revelstoke, aim for mid-January to late February for the deepest snowpack and the most consistent storms; March brings longer days, warmer temperatures and spring corn on the lower slopes. For Tremblant, the holidays are festive but crowded; late January to early March gives the best snow and quieter weekdays, and the March break weeks are busy again. Both mountains open in late November and close in April. If you can, ski the east in the crisp cold of February and fly west when the interior BC storms are stacking up. That is the Canadian winter at its best, and we would not trade it for anywhere.