The True North’s ski season is officially underway. Last week, a few ski resorts in Alberta and Quebec opened up for the season. While the terrain is limited so far, the stoke is still high. Here are the four Canadian ski resorts that opened last week.
Sommet Saint Sauveur: The first ski resort to open on the East Coast was technically Ski Ward. If you believe that a ski resort needs to be operating a chairlift to be the first to open, then it was Sommet Saint-Sauveur in Quebec. The perennial early and late-season contender opened for the season on November 2nd. They opened with the Estoile chairlift and the Cote 70 West trail. One of the cool parts of their opening weekend was that they had night skiing, which is done by very few ski resorts during the early stretch of the season.
Lift-serviced ski operations will be closed from today through Wednesday to preserve snow, but they’ll be back in action on Thursday.
Lake Louise: After originally announcing that it would open on November 10th, the Banff ski resort surprised guests by opening on November 3rd. Currently, they have five trails and two lifts open, with Lake Louise opening the Grizzly Gondola on Sunday. A terrain park is also open with eight features.
Mt. Norquay: Technically, Mt. Norquay was the first to open in Western Canada, as the ski resort opened its lifts at 8:59 a.m. on Friday, November 3rd. The people at Lake Louise Ski Resort must have been punching the air all weekend.
The Banff ski resort currently has two trails and lifts open, with the Cascade chairlift and Sundance Magic Carpet currently operating.
Nakiska: After some snowfall two weeks ago, the Alberta ski resort decided to open up for a preview weekend on November 4th and 5th. Nakiska only had upper mountain terrain open, so guests rode up the Olympic Chair, took runs down to the Gold Chair, and then rode back down the Olympic chair at the end of the day.
I’m not quite sure how he pulled it off, but Rise & Alpine got the first chair at both Mt. Norquay and Nakiska. The feat must have required a lot of coffee and hand warmers.
After closing on Sunday, Nakiska announced that they’re reopening on Thursday for another preview weekend. They’ll be staying open until Tuesday, November 14th, so they’re a couple of places for the people in Calgary to get their turns in this week.
Image/Video Credits: Sommet Saint-Sauveur/Fahri Yavuz, Lake Louise Ski Resort, Mt. Norquay, Nakiska
