PlanetSKI’s Banff Resort Guide

9th October 2024 | Ross Young, Banff, Alberta

Last modified on October 13th, 2024

Banff is a ski town in Alberta, Canada with three resorts on its doorstep. We use the word ‘doorstep’ in the Canadian sense of the word. PlanetSKI’s Ross Young reports.

It’s a long way to Banff, but the journey to the resort could hardly be more straightforward.

After the nine-and-a-half hour flight from London to Calgary, you hop on the bus right outside the terminal for the 85-mile transfer to the resort.

Two hours later, the bus drops you right at your hotel.

Once you’ve settled in, you’ll find that Banff has everything you’ll need to keep you happy for as long as you’re there.

Set against a stunning backdrop – Banff lies at the southern end of Banff National Park, a protected expanse of more than 2,500 square miles of the Canadian Rockies – the town boasts a thriving (if not quite five-star) restaurant scene, a stack of good bars and plenty of shopping opportunities, all in an area small enough to walk across in little over a quarter of an hour.

Banff, Alberta. Image © PlanetSKI.

But while fine dining and retail therapy are useful extras, the skiing is what really matters.

And that’s where Banff truly delivers.

When you holiday in Banff, your SkiBig3 lift pass lets you choose daily between (you guessed it) three separate ski hills:

Sunshine Village
Lake Louise
Mt Norquay

Each is accessed by timetabled buses with stops across town, so you’re guaranteed to be picked up from near your hotel.

Sunshine (15-minutes) and Lake Louise (45-minutes) are a way away, but in Canadian terms the journey is nothing in this vast country.

SUNSHINE VILLAGE

If Sunshine was all you had to ski for a week, you’d still go home happy.

Just a 15-minute drive from Banff town, its 137 runs offer something for everyone, from cruisey groomed slopes to some of North America’s gnarliest freeride runs.

On piste, Sunshine claims that the snow you’ll be travelling over is as good as you’ll find anywhere in the world.

Head to the upper reaches of the ski area and you’ll find out why that is.

High above the tree line, row upon row of fencing captures drifting natural snow in an unusual farming operation.

Sunshine Village. Image © PlanetSKI

With up to 9 metres (30 feet) of the fluffy stuff falling each season and an army of snow ploughs to move it around, Sunshine has no need for industrial-scale snowmaking: there’s enough of the real deal to keep its pistes well covered throughout the season.

Sunshine Village. Image © PlanetSKI

LAKE LOUISE

The second of Banff’s ski areas, Lake Louise, is a little further from town.

The 38-mile journey takes a little over three quarters of an hour.

Like Sunshine, Lake Louise covers three areas (the West Bowl, Front Side and Larch) but it’s even bigger, encompassing 4,200 acres of skiable terrain across more than 2,600 metres of elevation.

Lake Louise, Image © PlanetSKI

Again, there’s something for everyone here: the West Bowl in particular is a paradise for backcountry skiers, but there’s more than enough in the way of friendly groomers to keep beginners and intermediates happy too.

Better still, Lake Louise’s piste layout makes a point of catering for groups of mixed abilities, so there’s a choice of easy, intermediate or expert runs from the top of every chairlift.

Lake Louise, Image © PlanetSKI

Lake Louise is also one of the friendliest resorts I’ve had the pleasure of skiing at.

Stand for more than a couple of minutes in front of the giant piste map at the top the main Glacier Express chair lift and you’ll likely find yourself engaged in conversation by a resort representative who’ll recommend a few runs to you based on your ability and the conditions.

It’s a lovely touch that made me feel right at home.

NORQUAY

Banff and Sunshine will be familiar names to anybody with more than a passing interest in skiing.

But Mt Norquay, the third SkiBig3 hill, is something of a well-kept secret.

Just seven minutes’ drive from the centre of Banff, Norquay’s vital stastistics – 60 runs packed into 190 acres of terrain served by a grand total of six lifts – aren’t particularly impressive at first glance.

But size isn’t everything, and there’s plenty to love about Norquay.

Mt Norquay, Banff. Image c/o Ross Young.

For starters, it’s quiet.

You’re never going to have to queue for long at Sunshine or Lake Louise, but at times at Norquay it feels like you’re sharing the entire hill with just a handful of other people.

It’s steep, too.

If Norquay’s most precipitous runs, accessed via the Mystic and North American chairlifts, don’t set your pulse racing, nothing will.

They’re also why the mountain is treasured by locals: those in the know head to Norquay whenever there’s big dump of snow because they know that this is where to find safe, steep powder that most visitors, seduced as they are by the scale and reputation of Sunshine and Lake Louise, will overlook.

Throw in that Norquay has the only night skiing available in Banff , including a terrain park, and that the homespun delights of the Lone Pine pub lie in wait between the bottom of the slopes and stop for the bus back to town, and spending at least a day there makes a lot of sense.

So does planning a week’s skiing in Banff.