Revelstoke Mountain Resort (RMR) ends its winter 2025-26 run this weekend, wrapping up a season where it had a major service disruption at a crucial time due to a chairlift outage and few alternative lifts.
RMR runs relatively fewer chairlifts than other major resorts in Western Canada. But management at another big ski hill, Banff Sunshine Village, has stated the costs to add lifts, Revelstoke’s rural location, and its young age as a world-class resort all mean that whether RMR needs more lift capacity isn’t a clear-cut question.
From March 8 to 12, during the first leg of the snowboarder-famed Natural Selection Tour (NST), RMR’s Stoke Chair suffered mechanical issues that put it out of operation for five days. A gearbox issue was reported as replacement parts were ordered and awaited from the U.S. and Switzerland.
READ: B.C. riders soar to podium in Revelstoke at world backcountry snowboard finals
Day 1 of the NST competitions saw hundreds fewer spectators make it out to Montana Bowl without the chairlift to transport them uphill. Drone footage shared on social media also showed hundreds of skiers and snowboarders lined up at the base of RMR for Revelation Gondola as a result of increased traffic during the closure of the connecting Stoke Chair.
Once the lift reopened one afternoon, riders reported that it continued to experience mechanical failure that day.
“Our team worked really hard to get the Stoke chair running today (March 12) but encountered a few hiccups,” RMR posted on Facebook. “We know how important Stoke is to the mountain experience and appreciate everyone sticking with us while repairs were underway.”
While alternatively transporting celebrity NST snowboarders up Mount Mackenzie in a snowcat for their scouting and first competition runs, RMR also extended the service of its nearby Ripper Chair by an hour from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. as the Stoke Chair was fixed. Lift ticket prices were additionally dropped by 50 per cent from the standard window rate.
“We know this situation has been frustrating, especially during a time when conditions on the mountain are so good,” RMR operations vice-president Peter Nielsen said in a letter to resort guests. “The Stoke Chair is a special lift for many of us, and we share in your disappointment.”
For some resort-goers, a nearly-weeklong service disruption when the world had eyes on Revelstoke for NST begged the question of whether RMR needs more chairlifts and gondolas to meet winter demand.
RMR boasts the most vertical drop, 1,713 metres, of any North American ski resort. But, given its smaller tenure, remote location, and younger age compared with other Canadian resorts of its kind, it operates only six lifts.
Along with three chairlifts, the Stoke, Ripper, and Stellar chairs, RMR runs its gondola and two magic carpets. Total lift capacity increased by 25 per cent to 9,700 skiers per hour in 2017, after 24 new gondola cabins were added.
READ: Golden gondola investigation asks B.C. resorts to proactively monitor, fix lifts
At Whistler Blackcomb, which has 1,530 m of vertical but dwarfs RMR’s 1,263 hectares of terrain with 3,307 ha — the largest ski area in North America — there are a whopping 36 lifts with an hourly capacity of nearly 81,000 people.
Included are five gondolas, an eight-person chairlift, four six-person lifts, and eight quad chairs. The resort dates back to 1966, whereas RMR opened four decades later in 2007.
Near Invermere, Panorama Mountain Resort runs a total of 10 lifts, including a gondola and four quad chairs with an uphill capacity of 8,500 skiers per hour. The summit elevation is 2,450 m and total terrain is 1,204 ha, similar to RMR, but vertical is considerably less at 1,300 m.
For Kicking Horse Mountain Resort, five lifts, including an eight-person gondola and two quads, reach 1,417 ha of terrain and have a capacity for 6,750 riders per hour. However, its 1,315 m of vertical is fifth in North America to RMR.
Banff Sunshine Village Ski & Snowboard Resort, which gets several hundred thousand skiers annually, operates nine chairlifts, two magic carpets and a gondola between its three mountains and 1,359 ha of terrain. Its lifts can transport 23,550 riders hourly, and the resort draws up to 5,000 skiers per day.
Kendra Sonia, the resort’s brand and communications vice-president, told Black Press Media the high demand at Banff Sunshine Village is owed to its proximity to Calgary and the huge volume of day traffic. So when considering whether RMR warrants more lift infrastructure in rural Revelstoke, “the question isn’t black and white,” she said.
New lifts also present major expenses for resorts. Sonia said running a gondola for just an hour costs $1,000, while building a lift from base to top factors in anywhere between $10 million and $30 million.
“Chairlifts are very expensive, with high capital investment,” she said.
Another important element for mountain resorts is time, Sonia explained.
Banff Sunshine Village founded its summer resort nearly a century ago in 1928, with commercial skiing starting in 1934 and the first lift opening in 1935. RMR, however, remains a young resort that has lots to still learn about its terrain and how many guests it can serve on the hill at once, Sonia said.
READ: B.C. snowboarders staying true to themselves ahead of Revelstoke NST finals
RMR staff did not respond to Black Press Media’s initial request for comment, but have shared that Nielsen has since stepped down and will resign as operations vice-president come Friday, April 17.
Regardless of the hiccup and disappointment this March with the Stoke Chair, interest in snowy destinations such as Revelstoke may be shifting more to the summer season, despite their international reputation for powder.
From 2022 to 2025, tourism company Inghams Ski found that RMR had 11 per cent higher search volume online during summer than winter. This places Revelstoke ninth globally for ski resort towns seeing more interest in their summer season, the report says.
For comparison, Lake Louise, Alta., ranked fourth place worldwide for higher summer search volume, with 28 per cent more searches than during winter. It’s a telling change given that, since the World Ski Awards began in 2013, Lake Louise Ski Resort has nabbed the title of Canada’s top ski hill 11 different years.
RMR continues operating its ski hill for 2025-26 until 6 p.m. this Sunday, April 12. Summer opening is slated for June 5.