The first of Revelstoke’s two Natural Selection Tour (NST) venues will be on Revelstoke Mountain Resort (RMR) lands and is the product of thousands of hours of preparation during the summer.
With 24 riders dropping into the first Revelstoke venue of the Natural Selection tour, it’s worth considering that not all the features available to the riders were natural at all. During the seasons without snow, a team of builders led by local rider, Dustin Craven, manipulated the landscape into the terrain that the riders are set to take on. Craven and NST creator, Travis Rice, talked about what went into the venue and how it benefits the competition and the resort.
Amid his summer gig washing windows, Craven remembered receiving a call from Rice, who asked him to help with the project.
“I put the squeegee down, and picked up the chainsaw,” said Craven.
Over 11 weeks and more than a thousand hours, Craven and the team worked their way through the landscape.
NST sets out to test riders in some of the most diverse locations possible. Rice said the scope of the competition is intended to encompass everything from resort riding to the backcountry. As such, the ground the venue landed on was no accident. It was a decision made in partnership between RMR and NST.
The decision to host the competition in the Montana Bowl came from a combination of two key factors. The venue needed to be secluded to allow the snow to build up, without limiting access to a usable region of the resort. The venue also needed to be in an area where it wouldn’t go to waste.
“I think we kind of changed our perspective, from like, ‘oh, what’s the best piece of terrain that we can do it on’ to like, ‘where is the piece of terrain that would be a total value add’,” said Rice.
Craven explained that clearing the run was a slow process.
Starting in mid-July, Craven and the team worked their way up the mountain, glading the trees the way that they are cut for ski runs on resorts.
“Anywhere that we pick for like a platform to be built, we’d lob the trees down and then all the trees that were from that will get cut in half and kind of made it almost like a helipad,” said Craven.
The ‘heli pad’ structures that were built by Craven and the other builders were constructed throughout the riding zone. While the group prepped the grounds, they had to keep in mind the purpose of the building — they had to bear in mind that they needed enough terrain for 24 riders to drop in twice and still have options for fresh tracks. The also had to consider what the features they eyed in the summer might look like under Revelstoke’s average annual snowfall of six meters.
The experience, Craven said, was a reminder of how different the rider mind can be to the builder mind.
“When you’re in your boots in the summer, just as a person falling trees, you look at something you’re like, ‘oh, that’s big’. And then now that I’m back into snowboarder mode, and I really like to go big, I’m like, ‘oh, that’s a little too small’,” said Craven with a laugh.
Not only did the builders have to consider how many different features would suit the number of riders, they also needed to take the amount of snow into account. Early in the season when the snow was low, it created some concern.
“About a month ago, there was definitely a couple of concerned emails going around,” said Rice.
Rice called himself a ‘reckless optimist’, explaining that the longer the lack of snow went on, the more convinced he became that it would work out in their favour.
“I don’t think you get that for an entire season,” he said of the poor snow conditions before adding that even a bad year for snow in Revelstoke is still better than a good year in most places.
For his part, Craven was relieved for the snow that came.
“It’s nice to have a bit of a win on this one for us,” he said.
The results from the efforts of building the course were a mixture of natural and naturally enhanced features to create unique terrain for the competitors. The new venue was on display during the first day of the NST competition in Revelstoke on March 13, which can be viewed on Red Bull TV.
READ MORE: Ready, set, ride: Natural Selection Tour hits Revelstoke