West Kootenay Round-Up

This trip starts in the South­ern Inte­ri­or town of Castle­gar. Our shut­tle will be at the West Koote­nay Region­al air­port at 5:30 pm Pacif­ic time to pick you up. Then we’ll make our way to Ross­land and check in to the Red Moun­tain Vil­lage right at the base of the ski hill at 6:30. We’ll get com­fort­able, do a prop­er meet-and-greet with your guides and new fam­i­ly for the week, then head into town for our first com­mu­nal dinner.

*Note* — an option­al pick­up is avail­able at the Cran­brook air­port at 3:00 pm Moun­tain time, just in case any­body can­not get a flight to Castlegar

The guides will fire up a hearty break­fast for every­one in the spa­cious kitchen, served at our usu­al time of 8:00 am sharp. Rid­ers will have the chance to get their kit ready and build bikes if nec­es­sary. The con­dos have big garages, awe­some for hang­ing out and tin­ker­ing. Then we’ll start our first ride straight from here, a per­fect warm-up run on Tech­no Grind, KC Ridge, and Milky Way. We’ll start easy, get the blood flow­ing, then kick things up a notch with a 650 m descent! The shut­tle will pick us up way down at the bot­tom, and we’ll pop into town for lunch. Ross­land is a charm­ing lit­tle town full of moun­tain bik­ers, with a quaint main street dot­ted with great shops and cafes.

After fill­ing up we’ll pack in a sol­id after­noon ride (Drakes to Crown Point) start­ing with a fair­ly long climb, into a techy flow­ing descent. Anoth­er bonus shut­tle pick­up will be wait­ing for us at the bot­tom, with a cool­er full of ice-cold bev­er­ages. Then back to the con­do for show­ers and chill time, and into town for eats.

It’s the all-moun­tain epic you’ve been wait­ing for. You can choose to tack­le the whole thing or take the sec­ond entrance, which cuts about 30% off trail. We’ll start the day with anoth­er deli­cious break­fast cooked by the guides, and every­one will pack a lunch for lat­er (tell us what you like, and we’ll stock up on sup­plies before­hand). The entire Sev­en Sum­mits ride cov­ers a 35km dis­tance, climbs 1400m of ele­va­tion, and drops 2250M. That’s a lot. It typ­i­cal­ly takes between 5–7hrs to fin­ish it.

The shut­tle will be wait­ing at the bot­tom with, of course, a cool­er full of well-earned cold ones. After cheers­ing and hydrat­ing, we’ll take you back for a show­er before mak­ing our way to the Rock Cut Pub, just down the street, where we typ­i­cal­ly end up gorg­ing on com­fort food after this unfor­get­table world-class ride.

Wake up and pack up, we’re going into Ross­land for break­fast. Then it’s a 2hr dri­ve to New Den­ver where we’ll stretch the legs, walk around town and grab a bite for lunch. Today’s ride in the mys­ti­cal Slo­can Val­ley starts with the incred­i­ble Gale­na trail — a his­toric rail­way, to the remains of Alamo Sid­ing — a rel­ic of a train sta­tion, to the wild down­hill of Choic­es and Old San­don Rd. Fin­ish at Slo­can Lake and enjoy cold bevies by the beach. This view is sure to knock your rid­ing socks off. Go on… jump in for a swim and soak in this glo­ri­ous setting!

Final­ly, we’ll hop back in the van and shut­tle to Hal­cy­on Hot Springs Resort. This place is tru­ly awe­some. We’ll check into our very plush cot­tages for the night and get set­tled. We’ve got din­ner reser­va­tions at the King­fish­er Restau­rant and a hot date with the spring-fed pools.

Today starts with an a‑la-carte break­fast before load­ing the van for the scenic fer­ry cross­ing of Upper Arrow Lake. Now, on to the Mt MacPher­son trail sys­tem of Rev­el­stoke. We’ll start with an east side ride, mak­ing it all the way down to the lake shore, where you can stare straight across at the 5000+ ver­ti­cal feet of Rev­el­stoke Resort, the tallest ski hill in North America.

After lunch, we’ll hop on our bikes to explore the phe­nom­e­nal rid­ing in the area. These trails will have you smil­ing from ear to ear. We’ll wrap up with a final run down the crowd-pleas­ing Flow­down. Just as you thought this trail could­n’t get any bet­ter, it leads you straight to the local pub! Tonight we’ll check in to the beau­ti­ful Glac­i­er House log cab­ins, before check­ing out the town of Rev­el­stoke for din­ner. We’ll cap the day off with anoth­er hot tub soak.

Today, we’ll bid farewell to Rev­el­stoke as we load the van for a beau­ti­ful 2‑hour dri­ve to Gold­en and stop for a nice lunch. After fill­ing up, we’re bring­ing you to the top of Mt 7. This is where paraglid­ers take flight, and the leg­endary Red Bull Psy­chosis race was held. The views of the Rock­ies, Pur­cells and Colum­bia Wet­lands from the top are sim­ply jaw-drop­ping. We’ll choose an appro­pri­ate path down (there are sev­er­al options), before land­ing straight into the Moun­tain Shad­ows trail net­work for some tech­ni­cal all-moun­tain riding.

We’ll par­take in our dai­ly rit­u­al and toast a drink to the dirt Gods, before mak­ing our way up the hill towards Kick­ing Horse resort, where we’ll check in to the Lush man­sion for the next two nights. Hot tub? Check. Com­fy beds? Check. Stun­ning moun­tain views. Check, check, check!

The guides have got break­fast cov­ered this morn­ing. Sit back and enjoy. Today’s ride fea­tures an awe­some blend of the Moon­rak­er trail net­work, leav­ing straight from the dri­ve­way of our accom­mo­da­tions. This area is loaded with the best flow­ing trails you can pos­si­bly imag­ine. We’ll drop some vert, then climb, drop, ped­al, jump in a lake, ped­al, then drop some more. End­ing up at the riv­er, we’ll fol­low it straight to the White­tooth micro­brew­ery! You sim­ply can’t beat this.

Fol­low­ing a fresh pint of your brew of choice, we’ll pop into town to grab sup­plies for the last night com­mu­nal BBQ din­ner, which we’ll enjoy at our beau­ti­ful man­sion. Par­ty time!

Today we’ll save the cook­ing and have a sim­ple break­fast, and since the rid­ing right out the door is so good, we’re offer­ing one more insane­ly flowy, nev­er-end­ing down­hill to ensure you’ve got­ten your fix. We’ll pick you up at the bot­tom of the hill, bring you back for a show­er, and depart for Cal­gary by noon.

We’ve got a lit­tle over 3 hours of dri­ving today, so we’ll break it up with a tourist stop in Banff around 1:30 for lunch, a quick stroll through town, then off to the air­port for 5:00 pm Moun­tain time. What a week!