Banff Sunshine Village, Alberta

Banff Sunshine Village (formerly just Sunshine Village) is near Banff, Alberta and is known for having the deepest most reliable snowpack of any of the Alberta resorts. It’s not as spectacular as nearby Lake Louise, but with consistent early snowfall, modern lifts, and being closer to Banff than Louise, it’s a popular choice in Alberta.  This review is based on 2 days of skiing early-season long ago, and a repeat day in 2024 in mid-March.

Stats

Real Vertical ?	3,154′, Rank: 22
Size	3,358 Acres, Rank: 16
Annual Snowfall ?	360″ claimed / 258″ actual, Rank: 67
Lift Pods ?	10, Rank: 20
Distinct Trails ?	102, Rank: 32
Review Date	December 2007 and March 2024
Number of visits	2
Our Rating	★★★
Resort website	https://www.skibanff.com

Our visits

We first skied Banff Sunshine Village in 2007 on our trip to Banff when we skied Mt. Norquay, Banff Sunshine Village, and Lake Louise. Sunshine Village is only 10 miles from Banff and it’s an easy drive on mostly freeway through some of the most spectacular scenery imaginable. Being just before Christmas, on that first visit we didn’t get to experience Banff Sunshine when it was fully open.

Our second visit in March 2024 was the last day of our trip to ski #99 Marmot Basin.  We hit it on a perfect powder day.  Cold, but not TOO cold.  There was still a frozen solid surface under that powder, but it was definitely the best conditions of the trip.  Everything was open so we got to fill in some of the missing pieces from the first visit.

The base area

As you arrive at the base, you can’t see any of the resort from the parking lot. There is a gondola that takes you up to the real ski area 5KM up and to the left. The base of the gondola is in deep forest and much below the altitude where there is enough snow to ski without snowmaking.

The mountain stats vs. actual

Banff Sunshine is one of those places that does better on paper with impressive stats than it does when you are actually skiing it. The stats say 3,154′ of vertical. But there are a couple of problems: First off:  the base of the real ski terrain is actually the base of Goat’s Eye.  Everything below that is a 5KM ski way back to the parking lot. You would never intentionally ski that other than to get back at the end of the day. The vertical from the bottom of Goat’s Eye to the top is only 2,362′, which is adequate but not in the same league as Lake Louise.

The other problem is that there is only one chair with more than 1,500 ft of vertical. Goat’s Eye is an impressive 1,900′ of vertical on it’s own mountain. The 3 others in the 1,200-1,400 vertical range are on Lookout Mountain fanning out to cover most of it. The rest have very little vertical and are either very flat or have short runs.

What we didn’t do

Banff Sunshine has a lot of really steep terrain, and with enough snow and no solid ice base layer it would be a whole different experience than when we were there both times. “Delirium Dive” is their famous double-black terrain, and the first time we visited it was hard to imagine it even being skiable until much later in the season. Early season it looks pretty rocky.  There is a main line down from the bottom of the stairs that looks pretty easy, but the stairs would be the scary part for me!  It looked good to go in March 2024 with fresh pow but that icy base layer made me nervous.  We encountered some steep very icy conditions early in the day and didn’t want to repeat that experience.

There is more very steep terrain on Goat’s Eye which was completely stripped of snow by the wind when we were there in 2007, so there was only one way down on the intermediate run that is the easiest way down.  In 2024 Goat’s Eye was definitely our favorite place to be and we spent half the day there.  Some great long intermediate and lower advanced runs were enjoyed.  The one glitch was a painful run down Afterburner.  The top was perfect powder but it rolls over into a long steep section which was deep icy moguls that we couldn’t see from the top.

Great snow depth and quality

On both of our visits Sunshine had the best snow of the 3 resorts that we skied. In 2007 the quality was great even though there wasn’t enough of it, as it usually is in our experiences going to interior BC and Alberta. In 2024 we skied more typical conditions with plenty of coverage and no sign of approaching Spring even though it was mid March.

For early season trips, Banff Sunshine Village often has the most depth in all of North America in November. So Christmas skiing is usually going to be good and it’s a safe bet for planning a Christmas ski vacation there.

Lodges and food

The main village is actually mid-mountain and this is where we had lunch.  We opted for the sit-down asian restaurant with full service.  The food was good but expensive with small portions so we got hungry later in the day.  This is when we discovered our favorite food item of the entire trip: Beaver Tails!  We saw these for sale in at least 3 places.  Yum!

The good

• Most snow in Alberta
• Excellent steep terrain
• Cold temps keep snow quality high
• Views
• Proximity to Banff

The bad

• Actual vertical is 2,362′
• Only one chair with more than 1,500′ of vertical
• Only a handful of long intermediate or advanced groomers

Would we go back

We ranked this a bit low due to the strange mountain layout, but it’s worth a visit if you are in Banff.  The scenery alone makes it a memorable and unique experience.