Best Ski/Snowboard Resorts
Sunshine Village Ski & Snowboard Resort
Sunshine Village Ski & Snowboard Resort Toll free within North America: 1-87-SKI-BANFF • Outside North American: 1 (403) 277 7669. Main switchboard on mountain: 1 (403)-762-6500
From their website: Boasting 100% soft, natural snow, Sunshine Village is renowned for it's lengthy ski season from mid-November until late May. Located just a 15 minute drive from the world-class resort town of Banff, skiers & riders can hop aboard a new high-speed 8 passenger gondola and arrive to over 3,300 acres of stunning alpine terrain in under 13 minutes. Located at the top of the Continental Divide, the majority of the terrain at Sunshine Village is above 7,000 feet, far above the hustle & bustle of the valley below. Lift lineups are never an issue at Sunshine Village as the resort features 12 different lifts including seven modern quad chairs - the most in the Rockies. New this year, Sunshine has replaced Standish double chair with a quad chairlift and will add more advanced terrain on Goat's Eye mountain.
Lake Louise Ski & Snowboard Resort
Lake Louise Ski & Snowboard Resort Toll Free 1-877-253-6888 • Phone (403) 256-8473
From their website:As Canada's largest ski area, Lake Louise offers skiers and boarders unlimited possibilities. With four mountain faces, 4200 skiable acres, 113 named trails and 5 quad chairs, 'the Lake' is hard to beat. Lake Louise has it all, from gentle, perfectly groomed beginner runs to double black diamonds rated "the best super steeps in the country" (Ski Canada Magazine). Uniquely, there are green, blue and black runs down from every chair which allow beginners as well as intermediates and experts to enjoy the whole immense Louise experience.With abundant natural snow, backed up by Canada's largest snowmaking system, Louise guarantees skiing from early November to mid May. The Lake's huge, wide open bowls which lay claim to some of the driest, lightest snow, are home to the Canadian Powder 8 Championships. Lake Louise enjoys the honour of prestigous Gold Medals from Ski Magazine in Scenery, Terrain, Challenge and Value. Enjoy stunning panoramas from one of four spacious on-mountain lodges.
Banff Mount Norquay
Banff Mount Norquay Ski & Snowboard Resort Tel: (403) 762-4421
From their website:Banff Mount Norquay's long-standing reputation for challenge is based on the first runs you see upon approaching the area: a quintet of super-steep, mogul-studded freefalls served by the original Norquay double chair. For hardcore Norquay regulars, no runs anywhere can match Upper Lone Pine and Gun Run, a dynamite black-diamond duo as demanding as any trails in the Rockies. Memorial Bowl isn't a bowl at all but a generous, consistent swath with an average 34-degree pitch that rarely feels the blade of a snowcat. Even the North American, the easiest of these runs, legitimately earns its black diamond. Three more chairs climb up stepped-back parallel ridges and serve the area's beginner & intermediate runs. Anyone who continues to the lower parking lot, come upon the main base area, the welcome gateway to this more friendly terrain. In addition to a small, sheltered beginner slope, you'll find the Cascade Quad chair which services most of the beginner terrain and provides access to Spirit quad chair and to the long Pathfinder Express quad. Because the terrain lies deep in a valley under some very steep summits, it has a really rugged and interesting feeling. It also provides some of the most weather sheltered terrain in the area.
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