Lake Louise opens five days early: the Canadian Rockies ski season starts

Winter at neighbouring Banff Sunshine, March 2020. Photo: Alexander Farley via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0, cropped

Lake Louise Ski Resort in Banff National Park opened its 2026-27 season on Sunday 1 November 2026, five days before the planned date of Friday 6 November. The resort calls it its earliest opening in five years. On day one, skiers had one chairlift and one green run on a base of 11 to 13 cm.

• Lake Louise opened on Sunday 1 November 2026; the plan was Friday 6 November.
• One of 13 lifts ran on day one: the Juniper Express chair, with the green run Easy Street.
• The snow report gave a base of 13 cm on the upper mountain and 11 cm at mid-mountain.
• Mt. Norquay and Banff Sunshine open on Friday 6 November 2026.
• Lifts now run from 9:30 to 16:30, half an hour later than before.

The resort announced the early start on Friday 30 October 2026, SnowBrains reported. Cold weather in late October let the crews make snow day and night.

"A helping hand from Mother Nature, cold October temperatures and around-the-clock work by our snowmaking and mountain crews have made an early return to snow possible," the resort wrote in its opening announcement. It calls this its second-earliest opening on record. Teton Gravity Research and the British site PlanetSKI also reported the five-day gain.

Some reports speak of a week. The resort's own dates give five days: Sunday 1 November instead of Friday 6 November.

The opening terrain is small. The run and lift status sheet of 1 November 2026 lists the Juniper Express as the only open lift of 13, and Easy Street as the only open run. Two small terrain parks with jumps and rails also opened. The resort warns that terrain is limited at the start of the season.

The snow report of Sunday 1 November 2026 at 05:15 local time gave these figures:

The base equals the snow of the last two days, so the open run lies mainly on machine-made snow. The resort did not publish snow-gun numbers or ticket prices. It says opening-day tickets save more than 60 %, and that prices go up as more lifts open.

Lake Louise is part of the Banff group with Mt. Norquay and Banff Sunshine. Both neighbours open on Friday 6 November 2026. "The two other resorts near Banff are sticking with their plans," PlanetSKI wrote on 1 November.

Norquay itself moved its date forward from 7 to 6 November. "We've moved up our opening day as conditions have been prime for snowmaking," Norquay said, as quoted by Snow-Forecast.com. Further away, Nakiska plans a first weekend from 7 to 11 November, and Marmot Basin in Jasper expects to open on 13 November.

For decades, Lake Louise held the first speed races of the men's World Cup each November. The last World Cup races there ran in late 2022. In July 2023, FIS removed the men's downhills from the 2023-24 calendar.

"We have run out of time to confirm the funding early enough," Alpine Canada CEO Therese Brisson told CBC at the time. The 2026-27 World Cup calendar has no Lake Louise race; Canada's only stop is Tremblant, with two women's giant slaloms on 5 and 6 December 2026.

A first-week run on machine-made snow is firm, narrow and busy, and the cover at the edges is thin. On such snow, edge grip matters more than float. A narrow piste ski with a waist of about 70–75 mm holds better on hard snow than a wide freeride ski, and it costs less if a rock finds the base.

Two examples from our catalog: the Head Discovery 74 Pro has a 74 mm waist, and the Rossignol Hero MT CA has a 73 mm waist. Our top 5 carving skis compare more of this season's piste skis on the makers' figures. Easy Street is a green run, so first-day skiers can also look at our top 5 beginner skis.

Want a ski for your whole winter, not only the first week? The Pick-A-Ski selector compares the current catalog on your level, terrain and size.