The opening of ski season in Alberta and B.C. has officially arrived, with skiers at Lake Louise Ski Resort making their first tracks of the season on Tuesday.
“La Nina winter has come in strong,” said Matt Mosteller, senior vice president of Resorts of the Canadian Rockies, which owns several mountain ski resorts including Nakiska, Kicking Horse, Kimberley and Fernie Alpine Resort.
The early arrival of winter is good news for Alberta’s tourism industry.
“Snowmaking conditions are fantastic, and Mother Nature continues to make snow for us,” Mosteller said.
“Air temperature is key to snow making. We need below 3 or 4 C,” said Mosteller, explaining the ski hills have been able to make snow both day and night.
Typically he said one of the resorts opens in November, but to have so many opening this early is incredible.
Several other ski hills in the Rockies are also planning opening in the coming week including:
- Nakiska opening on Nov. 8 for its preview weekend
- Sunshine Village on Nov. 8
- Norquay on Nov. 9
- Fernie Alpine Resort on Nov. 29
- Kicking Horse on Dec. 8
- Kimberley on Dec. 13
Mosteller said Fernie already has more than 60 cm of snow and the most recent snowstorm to hit the Revelstoke area dumped more than 40 cm of snow on Kicking Horse Resort.
In recent years, he says, a snowfall like that would be followed up with rain, but that hasn’t happened so far this year.
Mosteller says, combined with a great end to the ski season last year, its should mean lots of tourists, especially from the U.S. coming north this winter.
“Having snow early like this really puts the place on the map that there is snow and that people can feel confident about booking their ski vacation this winter,” said Mosteller.
“That’s fantastic for the tourism communities and the mountain communities. So many of them are dependent during the winter on skiers coming in and they shop, they buy gas, they eat out for their dinners all of those experiences.”
“Boy what a great season this will be,” adds Mosteller.
In Jasper, Marmot Basin was not affected by this summer’s devastating wildfire and intends to open per usual sometime this month for the 2024/25 season.
The ski hill said on its website it has already received its first big snowfall of the year, but an opening date has not yet been announced.