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Skiing at Banff Sunshine Village

About Banff Skiing Resort – Sunshine Village

Sunshine Village Ski Resort locates at 8 km west of Banff Townsite – normally 10 minutes driving time.

It has 3356 skiable acres of terrain and 107 named runs on three mountains, high variety of runs (steep bowls, chutes, wide open groomers, tree runs, bumps).

It is the highest ski resort in Canada, and one of the largest ski resorts in North America. It covers 20%  Beginner runs, 55% intermediate runs, and  25% advanced / expert runs.

Click here to view the map of Sunshine Village ski trials map.

Sunshine Mountain Lodge – A only ski-in and ski-out hotel in Banff (Below) which located at the Sunshine Village.

Why Skiing and Snowboarding in Banff Sunshine Village resort?

The following reasons are why our family loves to the Banff Skiing Sunshine Village.

  1. The best thing about Sunshine is the snow: 100% real snow and nearly no ice.
  2. We love the varieties of runs. Our kids were so excited to explore every different terrain, especially, they had so much fun to ski through trees.
  3. Runs are shorter than Lake Louise – the advantage is that your muscle does not get tired as quick.
  4. We really enjoy the special 10 minutes ski-out runs starting from the ski hill to the base parking lot at the end of day.
  5. It is close to Calgary where we live comparing with Lake Louise Ski Resort – 40 minutes closer.

Traveling with young kids …

If you have little kids with you and you want to enjoy black / diamond runs by yourself, what will you do?

Don’t worry! your kids can stay either in childcare (half-day or full-day), or ski school (half-day or full-day) which the ski resort provides, you are free to go and enjoy your fresh powder runs. Click here for more details.

I gave the Sunshine ski school program 5 stars. The instructors are very patient and kids had fun with them. We left our two kids in a full day Kids Kampus when both of them were magic carpet skill level – not on lift chair yet. By the end of day, both of they had no problem to ride lift chair and enjoyed multiple green runs. At the end, their instructors also provided report cards indicates how students do, and what should do next, etc.

Our Banff Skiing Experience in Sunshine Village

We adult’s ski level is between immediate and advanced. we normally ride on blue and some black runs. We like the variety of the three mountains (Goat`s Eye Mtn., Eagles Mtn., Lookout Mtn.), Our favorite is Continent Divide lift which goes the top of Lookout Mtn. The runs off this lift are all above tree-line with great views.

Our kids are beginner. They are big fans of Sunshine as Sunshine has a large variety of “Green” trails and terrain for beginners. They really love to ski through trees and over few bumps (moguls) on some green runs such as Wolverine and Jackrabbit.

If you are an intermediate skier or better, go to the top of both Lookout and Goat’s Eye. The view from Lookout is spectacular to say the least, and the top section offers up blue or black diamond runs that are thrilling. Goat’s Eye offers up a variety of options from the top (amazing views included) from extreme advanced to intermediate, with lower runs that keep the blood pumping. And at the end of the day, you can enjoy a 10-minute cruise as you ski out to the parking lot which our family love to do.

The tips from my experience:

  1. If you want to maximize your ski time, you should arrive at Sunshine ski base station at least half hour earlier as it take time to line-up to get on the Gondola and it takes about 20 minutes to ride up to the ski area. If you need to rent ski gear there, you need to get there even earlier. Or you just rent ski gear in Banff townsite at the nght before you ski if you stay in Banff.  We live in Calgary, we normally rent ski gear for our kids at the night before ski day. It save lots time to lineup ski rentals at Sunshine.
  2. If you come on weekends, food court here is busy and it is take long time to get food. Better to bring your lunch if you can so that you can save time for more runs. They have microwave for general use.
  3. If you want to know what you expect when you get here. You can check their webcams for current conditions and snow reports.

If you want variety of ski experience during your ski vacation, more Banff Lake Louise ski resorts are waiting for you to explore: Lake Louise Ski Resort, Mount Norquay, Nakiska. Each of them is unique.