Thanks to Johnny and friends for sharing your pictures
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 Where do kids go when they want to have fun? Hey go to the playground, they have fun with their friends, there are a variety of features at the park that make things fun, they spend huge amounts of time having fun. The riding area we call the Playground is very much like this, and we were lucky to be introduced to this riding area by our friend and local sledhead, Jessie R. He in turn was told about it by Rob Alford, so once again Rob gave up on of his riding areas to our Group and this one is a gooder. I can’t imagine how many good areas he has to ride that he is willing to give up the location of the Playground. You have to drive out of town to get to the playground, but as the main riding areas in and around Boulder get very busy now, to get fresh snow you often have to travel a bit to get the good stuff. We used to be able to ride all kinds of great areas right on Boulder that was guaranteed to be untouched. But with the great sled technology, and growing popularity, more people are off the beaten paths and into exploring more of Boulder. Certainly if there has not been fresh snow in a few days, people are hunting for fresh and pretty soon, people are riding our “secret zones”. The Playground is well worth the drive, as the area is big, and is only ridden by a very few, so you can always find huge areas of fresh snow. The Playground is full of wonderful natural features that make this a fun area to ride, rolling hills, open meadow, lots of nice tree riding as well as technical climbs. There are no big cliffs, or areas that you need to avoid, pretty much the whole riding area is open to explore. The fun part is, when you think you have explored most of the riding terrain you keep finding new areas to ride and play in, the area is very big, and so far we have only explored about half of it. The days we have been to the Playground, we have had epic conditions, often blue bird days with lots of fresh, we have been truly blessed with good friends to ride with and many laughs and fond memories of riding in the Playground. The Playground has become one of our priority riding areas, we get in the trucks and head there whenever possible and are grateful for the opportunity to ride there and explore this fantastic riding area. We hope that you enjoy the pictures and the two videos of this fantastic riding area, we will be heading to this zone over and over again, because we love to play in the Playground! Homer, loving the fresh lines in the Playground Thank-you Homer for the great commentary Caw, Caw -- where are you guys?     Again, thanks for checking us out – We are now offering to the public our Sled-Revy baseball caps - check them out.
Also - please go to the products we use page to see what fuels us. We love riding Revelstoke because of the large number of fantastic riding areas in and around Boulder Mountain. The area we call 10 Bump is one of those little gems that is tucked away and most people ride by in order to ride more established and popular sledding areas. The area was named 10 Bump because there are a series of shelves one after the other, where it feels like your riding up 10 different shelves. 10 Bump was shown to us by our friend Kurt who is a legend in deep and steep extreme skiing field who made the transition to sledding many years ago. Kurt was, like Rob Alford a world ranked extreme skier and we have had the privilege to ride with him on many occasions. Kurt, like many long time locals rarely share their secret areas with outsiders, so we were honored when he brought us into 10 Bump. We have been riding 10 bump for 6 or 7 years and have always had excellent days playing in this zone. Over the years we have explored the many aspects of this area but we have always known that there was more secrets to 10 bump, but due to technology we were not able to access these zones, until this year. This year we have found an area we now call 10 Bump Plus, as it is another huge riding area at the top end of the last Bump, a Plus to the existing known areas. In the last month we have broken in and explored this zone several times, the most recent trip we had 4 feet of fresh with sunshine and we took full advantage to explore and document our deep snow riding experience. We took stills and video and we hope you enjoy what we rode and enjoyed. The day we were riding was one of those days you see in other people videos and movies, deeeeeeep fresh, powder snow and sunshine, these are what deep snow days are made of. To say this trip was epic would not do honour to the day and conditions. Not only were the conditions excellent but the crew was on their game and we spend the day riding and exploring and having a fantastic time. 10 Bump Plus will be an area we will continue to ride and explore as this is just the bottom end of another huge riding area, and once again Revy proves that it truly is the MECCA of sledding and if you haven't made your way there yet, you need to book a guide and explore the area for yourself. Here are a few short videos and a couple of pictures of our adventure. The videos were shot on the "last bump", so to speak. You have to climb up and out of the technical tree's and the mountain rewards you with this beautiful rolling terrain, and on days where the visibility is good, you end up with spectacular riding and video opportunities. We shot lots of GoPro footage, but the iPhone makes it easy to upload and share, enjoy.    The name of this area we call Pirates Cove got the name from a group of guys who call themselves the “Snow Pirates”. They named the area pirates cove because the first area has a u-shape like a cove, plus it’s a tucked in, out of the place zone on Boulder that no one ever rides because when you look down into the first bowl (there are 2, one above the other) the drop in is significant and there appears to be no way out other than back up a very steep incline, so most people come to the top – look and turn around to play in other areas. We found this spot by looking down – and we too were unsure if we could make it up , so we set out to find a way in from the bottom, that was no easy task and took several trips and hard slogging to find an acceptable way in. Those were great times and fun adventures as we searched out a route in very technical terrain, but we had many laughs and good stories. In the end we found a way up to the bowl we had looked down upon, and so we knew we had a way out once we dropped in and could take down and out if we could not climb back up. There were many times we dropped in that several in the group did not think they would ever climb back out, sled technology was not there yet for everyone and so we would watch and laugh as several in the group would pound on the hill in hopes of getting up and out of the pirates cove. The area offered such a challenge that one group member actually made decals and presented them to anyone who made the climb up and out of the “cove”, if you received a decal they became a “Snow Pirate” and most people proudly displayed the snow pirate sticker on their sled as a badge of honour. So, now that you know a bit about the pirates cove, our story begins with our desire to “drop the cove “ on Saturday January 3rd. The cove has 2 significant creek drainages running through the area, and with the low snow at lower elevations a couple snow pirates did an exploratory ride into the bottom end of the cove to ensure that the last drainage down was passable, that the creek holes were either not too big or at least the creek was navigable. The day before our planned trip to drop the cove, the two pirates did the exploratory jaunt and determined that, while the creek was not completely covered, it at least was passable with some finesse. So the day was set for Saturday and the conditions were excellent, blue skies, a bit chilly, but we would be sweating soon, so that was a minor inconvenience. We left the parking lot, up the trail, past Boulder cabin and up and over to the top of the Pirates Cove. We were a group of 7, bigger than we usually have, but 4 of us have been up and down the Pirates Cove several times while 3 were going to experience the Cove for the first time. As our group arrived at the top of the drop in, we stopped, as the drop in looked steeper than usual, plus with the early snow coverage we wanted to make sure the drop in was safe for everyone to proceed. So we took a cautious approach as myself and “G-Raf” (a nickname story for another time) heading down into the Cove, after we dropped in we called the others down on the radio. The snow was fresh and all untouched of course and we quickly banged up the main area while G-Raf and Robbie and I headed of into the trees to explore a shelf we have looked at but never ridden. There we found a lake we have seen on Google earth and explored a shelf we think might lead into the backside of Polaris bowl. We explored for a while and then headed back to the group and rounded everyone up so we could drop into the next area below the first bowl. We had to traverse through a partially filled creek, the creek was a challenge to navigate, so we popped over a ridge and found a new aspect of the Cove that we didn’t know existed, we played there for a bit, then we found a route into the last big bowl lower down in the Cove. On the way there we had one of our Cove newbies fall into a giant hole in the creek (see the video below) and after some laughs and heavy lifting he was up and out and we spent some time banging up the last big bowl and the surrounding tree riding area. The last drop out of the Cove entailed traversing a sparsely filled in creek and down some steep faces (see video below) and then onto a trail that would bring us back to our trucks. We had a fantastic day dropping through the Pirates Cove, we had great snow, good tree and bowl riding, some good laughs and fun times – a perfect sledding day. While the 3 newbies to Pirates Cove do not get a pirate decal- you only get that for going up from the bottom and out the top- they did get to experience an aspect of Boulder that very few have had the pleasure to partake in and they can at least say they have been in the Cove, so maybe next time we will bring them up and out and they can get the coveted Snow Pirate sticker for their sled. So if you’re up on Boulder and you see a sled with the “Snow Pirate” sticker, go over, say hi and ask them to tell you their story of how they conquered the Pirates Cove. When we were in the Cove we had some fun and some laughs In the Cove TJ does a nice climb and hits a small feature - just missing a tree. Morgan finds a hole in a creek as we maneuver down the cove. G-Raf plays in the Cove A Snow Pirate in the Cove The last drop out of the Cove - it's a bit steep. A beautiful sunset to complete the day of playing in the Pirates Cove Revelstoke was pretty slow when we arrived on the night of December 18th, many Holiday sledders were still at work as the true Holiday rush starts with a frenzy on the 26th and goes hard until January 1st. Come January 1st, many sledders headed home, with a hangover I am sure, leaving much of the main sledding areas banged up, but there was lots of hidden fresh snow treasures to be had. |
AuthorWe are people that love sledding in the backcountry, we love getting out and away from the crowds and enjoying the challenge of the deep snow and mountains. We love the Revelstoke area, we believe it to be the best place to backcountry sled. We are people that dedicate a lot of time to becoming better sledders and we want to pass this passion onto others as we believe there is no better sport than sledding in the backcountry. Archives
December 2019
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