EDIT: As of Thursday, March 12 the Stoke Chair is operational.
Hometown representatives Dustin Craven and Mateo Massitti dropped into the Montana Bowl Tuesday, March 10 for YETI Natural Selection Revelstoke. Craven was invited back after his showing at the 2025 competition and Massitti earned his spot during the Myōkō, Japan Super Session.
After days of gentle powder slowly topping up the region, the sun was in and out between the clouds for the first competition day as all 24 riders took their first crack at the course. Craven and Massitti were seeded into two different brackets, with the top 12 riders from three competition brackets heading to the finals, and the top male and female rider crowned champions.
“It does set up a good bracket for us. That would be really nice,“ Craven told Revelstoke Mountaineer at the March 9 opening ceremonies when asked about him and Massitti ending up in the finals.
Craven helped build the course in Montana Bowl for the last two summers, increasing various features such as Bird Nests, suspended platforms that collect pillows of snow for competitors to take on.
“When people hit those it’s cool to see because they’re 100 per cent manufactured. You don’t run into them in the backcountry,” he said.
While the winter season has been marked with a delayed start and persistent weak layers, a string of storms and Revelstoke’s overall snowpack is meeting if not exceeding the expectations of international competitors.
“A bad winter for us is probably an eight or nine out of ten everywhere else in the world,” he said.
The home mountain advantage couldn’t quite get Craven into the second round of competition. But Massitti found himself headed to the finals during the first round of his bracket alongside Gigi Rüf. Canadian Brin Alexander joined them in his second round, scoring the highest run of the day.
Competition day two is still waiting for conditions to make the call, with a new storm system rolling through the region. Fresh snow would reopen previously run sections of the mountain, giving riders new opportunities at slightly familiar terrain.
“It’s challenging conditions, but hopefully everyone gets to land and we don’t have any incidents,” Craven predicted the night before hitting the Montana Bowl for YETI Natural Selection Revelstoke 2026.
Revelstoke Mountain Resort Stoke Chair struggles
Access to YETI Natural Selection Revelstoke’s spectator zone required a little more legwork and coordination from fans with the Stoke Chair, the only lift to the top of Mount Mackenzie, closed due to mechanical issues found in the gearbox.
Replacement parts from the US were on site Monday, March 9. But key pieces were still on the way from Switzerland after air travel was delayed due to “international circumstances.”
Installation of the new parts could take up to 14 hours to complete and a forecasted storm system for the region might delay arrival even more.
With the Stoke Chair out of operation, the resort has been working to temporarily increase operations at the Ripper Chai. Only accessible via runs from the Stellar Chair while the Stoke Chair is down, the Ripper’s hours have been extended by an hour
Accessing the Natural Selection live spectator zone required audiences to hike in along the cat track exit path instead of accessing Montana Bowl from Jalapeno or Hot Sauce runs that lead to a trail connecting the bowl to the rest of the resort. Touring gear such as ski skins and split boards along with backcountry equipment was required by the resort for anyone wanting to watch from the spectator zone.
While traveling uphill and touring inbounds is not typically allowed at Revelstoke Mountain Resort, spectators were advised to travel uphill from The Last Spike run and along a cat track leading to the Montana Bowl.
Those not wanting to make the hike out to the venue caught the Day One competition action at the screening spots around Revelstoke Mountain resort and on Red Bull TV. Day two, scheduled for later in the week will also stream on RedBull TV and at all screening venues.
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