All images: Courtesy of Eleven
These days, there are so many heli-ski operations to choose from it’s hard to know what makes each one unique and worthy of your hard-earned dollars. Some operations lean on their terrain or average annual snowfall while others lean on the guest experience with the gourmet meals and lavish lodging. At Eleven Revelstoke, you get it all—300,000 acres of tenure in the Pinnacles, Valhalla and Central Monashee mountains, a 2-to-3 guide-to-guest ratio, a luxury lodge in the heart of downtown Revelstoke stocked with five-star service and an average of just five down days a season. A Canadian quadrangle of heli-ski excellence, if you ask us.
While “roughing it” is how some people want to experience remote parts of the world, Eleven understands that’s not everyones cup of tea. Hence, the experiential travel company developed its formula: Incredible mountain adventures capped off with the comforts of home. Eleven owns and operates 13 lodges around the world with the same attention to detail, dedicated to providing completely unique and customizable experiences for every guest—including the Revelstoke Lodge.
Basecamp to some of the best—and deepest—snow in the world, the Revelstoke Lodge is now open for the 2025 season and completely renovated to meet the Eleven standards. Originally built in 1911 by Hector McKinnon—who would go on to serve ten terms as Revelstoke’s mayor—the renovation of the Revelstoke Lodge pays homage to the building’s history of being the nicest place in town. Adorned with local art, the Revelstoke Lodge features 12 guest suites, including three new mezzanine-style “captain suites,” which means 12 is the maximum number of guests at a time. Whether you and a couple buddies are looking for a semi-private ski vacation or you have the means to book out the entire place, Eleven Revelstoke is the most customizable luxury experience of any operation in the area. A designated ski locker room equipped with boot driers and charging ports in all 12 lockers, four massage treatment rooms, three bars, a ground-floor restaurant, a fully equipped gym as well as a hot tub, sauna, steam room and cold plunge round out the lodge offerings for all of the self care you could possibly need between ski days. Eleven Revelstoke is stocked and ready to create the heli-assisted vacation of your dreams, but the accommodations are only half of the equation.
In partnership with Revelstoke-based guiding operation Kingfisher, the Eleven Revelstoke Lodge is a die-hard skier’s white dream. One of the toughest components to heli skiing is weather. It’s the sole dictator of whether you can fly or not, which ends up making heli skiing quite the gamble. At Eleven, the use of A-Star helicopters not only keeps the ski group small—three guests and two guides per bird—it’s also a maneuverable helicopter that can start and stop easily, which means storms don’t always pose a problem. This unique ability to fly in most weather is what piqued the interest of Eleven, as well as industry legend Mike Hattrup, the outfitter’s Director of Skiing. U.S. Ski and Snowboard Hall of Famer and star of the 1988 Greg Stump blockbuster Blizzard of Aahhh’s, Hattrup knows good skiing and how it should be delivered.
While out heli-skiing with co-owner of Kingfisher, Matt Devlin, in the Central Monashees of the operation’s tenure, it became blatantly obvious how much he and his guides genuinely love what they do. To maximize the tenure, Devlin and his crew spend roughly $100,000 a summer glading terrain and setting up new landing zones in order to make flying and skiing possible on any given day throughout the winter. That investment each year ends up saving the operation roughly $300k in flight time because pilots and guides know where to land and ski, depending on weather and snow conditions. When Mother Nature allows, you can ski from the peaks of the high alpine all the way to the valley floor but when storms roll in, mid and lower elevation tree skiing satiates the need to schuss. If you’ve ever spent a day inside waiting for the green light to fly, you know heli skiing in the trees is better than no heli skiing at all. And thanks to an average of 700 inches of sought after cold smoke a year, the only tracks you ever ski over are from someone else in your group.
No matter what you and your crew are looking for in regard to terrain and intensity—from steep couloirs to fast laps and mellow meadow hopping—the Eleven Revelstoke Lodge has the helicopters, guides and tenure to make it happen. Eleven’s tenure covers most of the terrain between Revelstoke and the Kelowna airport which means you can even ski on your way there. Guests can throw their boots on as soon as their plane lands, get picked up via helicopter and immediately dive into the amazing snow and terrain. The same goes for the day you fly out. For a premium price, you can bag some final laps on the way back to the airport and board your plane with a head full of helmet hair and an ear-to-ear grin.
There are plenty heli-ski operations offering some combination of skiing and lodging, complemented by the scent of jet fuel, and then there’s the Eleven Revelstoke Lodge—a heli-ski experience all it’s own. Flight check: prepare for sending.
