Whilst many resorts across the Atlantic have had to contend with patchy snowfall this season, an announcement from the Canadian Rockies immediately caught the attention of the mountain industry: Sunshine Village in Alberta will, exceptionally, be offering skiing from 20 June to 5 July 2026.
Located in the heart of Banff National Park, one of the most spectacular mountain regions on the American continent, Sunshine Village has enjoyed exceptional snow conditions this winter. The resort recorded nearly 1,000 centimetres of snow during the 2025–2026 season, well above its usual average of around 600 centimetres.
This exceptional snowfall will therefore enable the ski area to reopen for the summer for a further sixteen days after the official end of the season, scheduled for 18 May.
A historic season in the Canadian Rockies
To fully appreciate the significance of this announcement, we need to consider the winter of 2025–2026 within a particularly mixed North American context. Whilst much of the western United States experienced a season characterised by milder-than-average temperatures and, in some cases, a lack of snow (particularly at several resorts in California, Nevada and Utah), the Canadian Rockies saw almost the opposite weather pattern.
Alberta and the Banff region have enjoyed an exceptionally cold, long and snowy winter. A series of successive weather systems from the Pacific have provided the Canadian mountains with a steady supply of dry, cold snow, creating conditions that many local professionals are already describing as a ‘record-breaking season’.
March 2026 marked a real turning point. Sunshine Village recorded over two metres of snow in just a few weeks, with particularly heavy accumulations in high-altitude areas exposed to prevailing winds. This was compounded by a relatively cool end to the season, which significantly limited the spring thaw typically experienced by North American resorts from April onwards.
In early May, the snow cover was still spectacular in some parts of the ski area, exceeding two metres in depth in places. This is now an extremely rare occurrence for a non-glacier resort in North America.
But beyond the figures, it is above all the quality of the snow conditions that is impressive this season. Thanks to its high altitude (between approximately 2,200 and 2,850 metres) and its cold continental microclimate, Sunshine Village has a natural ability to retain its snow cover for much longer than most ski resorts on the continent. This unique geographical combination explains why the resort consistently boasts one of the longest seasons in Canada.
In light of these exceptional circumstances, the management of Sunshine Village has therefore taken an extremely rare decision: to reopen some of the ski lifts from 20 June so that skiing can continue until 5 July 2026, right in the middle of Canada Day weekend, Canada’s national holiday celebrated on 1 July.
Banff, one of the world’s leading mountain destinations
This exceptional summer opening serves above all to shine a spotlight on one of the world’s most iconic mountain destinations: Banff and the Canadian Rockies. In the North American collective imagination, Banff occupies a place comparable to that of Chamonix in the Alps or Yosemite in the United States: a region where the mountains transcend mere sporting activity to become a truly immersive experience of nature.
Established in 1885, Banff National Park is Canada’s oldest national park and is now listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site as part of the Canadian Rocky Mountain Parks. Every year, millions of visitors come here in search of something that few destinations in the world still manage to offer with such intensity: spectacular landscapes, a sense of boundless space and an almost unadulterated connection with the wilderness.
Here, everything seems to operate on a different scale. Steep slopes plunge down into vast glacial valleys. Lakes such as Lake Louise and Moraine Lake display almost unreal shades of turquoise, directly attributable to the mineral particles resulting from glacial erosion. The boreal forests stretch for hundreds of kilometres, whilst hanging glaciers still dominate certain ridgelines despite the climate changes observed in recent decades.
Over the years, the region has become one of the world’s leading destinations for year-round outdoor tourism. In summer, the Canadian Rockies are transformed into a vast playground for enthusiasts of alpine hiking, trail running, mountain biking, climbing, kayaking and wildlife photography. Scenic routes such as the Icefields Parkway, often regarded as one of the world’s most beautiful mountain roads, attract travellers from all corners of the globe.
Against this already spectacular backdrop, the chance to ski in the middle of July lends an almost surreal quality to the experience
Banff also offers a rare opportunity to immerse oneself in a natural environment that remains largely unspoilt. Spotting black bears, elk, bighorn sheep or mountain goats is an integral part of the local experience. Here, wildlife is not merely a secondary feature of the landscape: it plays a vital role in shaping the identity of the Canadian Rockies and in fostering that constant sense of being in a place still dominated by nature.
