At the end of March we spent a week around the “Big3” ski resorts near Banff, AB. Coming from a so far rather mediocre winter in the US (2025/26 was rather dry), this area was a breath of fresh air, especially Banff Sunshine.
You can read about Lake Louise here.
Good to Know
You will need a Parks Canada entry pass for Banff National Park which includes all ski resorts. Having a season pass for any ski resorts doesn’t exclude you. Also if you are there for more than 7 days and are two or more people in a car, an annual pass might be worth consideration.
Banff Sunshine
Banff Sunshine was our second stop in the area after a couple days at Lake Louise. Initially we assumed that the resort must be in, or close to town, causing us to almost miss the exit as we had originally planned to stop for a coffee in town before heading to the resort. Turns out, there is a very lovely coffee shop right on the mountain called Java Lift. Delicious coffee and some great pastries. We stopped there each day we visited Banff Sunshine.
When arriving at the resort, you will first take a long gondola ride from the base area where the parking is, via a mid-station, to the base area on the mountain, also called Sunshine Village. A “secret” tip is to get off at the mid-station for Goat’s Eye Mountain in the morning to avoid crowds and get fresh groomers and pow stashes. Apparently everyone goes to Sunshine Village first and then migrates over to Goat’s Eye Mountain in the afternoon. Needless to say, we didn’t follow that advice as we wanted to indulge at Java Lift.
Once ready to ski, Banff Sunshine has three main areas. Goat’s Eye Mountain with long black diamond ◆ and blue 🟦 runs as well as a series of chutes called the South Side Chutes and a personal favorite the Eagle Creek ◆ run that feels like a natural half-pipe, following a creek bed.
Another favorite run was Farside Chute ◆◆, which just opened up in the afternoon when we were skiing in the area one day. Oh my gosh, light and dry, knee deep powder with face shots on every turn. Some of the best turns of the season. Abby also tried them a little later, once I scoped out the terrain a bit. Her first time skiing ◆◆ and she even went back for seconds!
The second main area is Lookout Mountain which is accessed directly from Sunshine Village or through the Great Divide Quad which sits a little higher on the mountain and also takes you to the top most point of Lookout Mountain. We ended up lapping Great Divide Quad the most, skiing the Bye Bye Bowl ◆ and South Divide 🟦.
The third main area is Mt Standish with some more beginner friendly terrain and less vert. Although, there is some serious terrain to be found here as well, for those inclined. Overall, we didn’t spend much time in this area as we preferred to go higher up and do longer runs.
On more cloudy and white out days, Mt Standish offers better visibility as a lot of the runs are nestled into trees that provide better contrast.
Some other highlights were the yellow and orange bubbles on some of the chairs, providing some protection from the elements. Those lifts also had heated seats which was nice.
At the top of the Wawa Quad is also a Beacon Park, which allows you to sharpen your avalanche rescue skills. We spent some time there one day, before doing a little tour for some fresh powder just outside the resort boundaries.
Banff Sunshine also offers two freeriding areas called Delirium Dive and The Wild West which we didn’t get to check out on this trip. If you are considering skiing there, you must know your avalanche rescue skills, bring a transceiver, shovel and probe and ski with a partner. This is checked at the entrance of the zone by ski patrol.
The full Ikon Pass allows seven days of skiing at the Big3 resorts. We skied four of our seven days at Sunshine and it is one of our favorite resorts this 25/26 season, partly because they actually had snow.
Stats
- Base Elevation: 5,446 feet / 1660 meters
- Summit Elevation: 8,957 feet / 2730 meters
When to go
From what we learned from the locals, snow usually arrives early in the season, November – December, followed by a drier period. It picks back up usually in March. During our time there towards the end of March, several storms moved through the area depositing 5 – 10 inches per storm.
Our Rating
- Terrain: ★★★★★
So much terrain. The split across three mountains feels nice and offers different areas for different skill levels. An amazing amount of challenging terrain and with the existence of the freeride zone the possibilities are endless. - Lift access: ★★★★★
It seems that the gondola to Sunshine Village and Goat’s Eye Mountain would be the bottleneck, and it might be on some days, but when we were there, with full parking and continuously arriving buses, we never waited longer than 5 minutes to load. The lifts on the mountain are fast and are navigated with ease. - Lodges: ★★★★☆
We did not get to evaluate the lodges enough, but having a third wave coffee shop on the mountain is gold. - Parking: ★★★★☆
Parking was easy but seems to fill up in the morning if you arrive too late as there is only limited amount due to the geography. Buses are running from town though and there are also buses that are taking you from your car to the gondola. Only downside, the parking lot buses only seem to run during the opening hours, so if you take too long to get ready you need to walk.
Overnight parking
Being in a van, we stayed in the Overflow parking about 25 minutes north, close to Lake Louise. It is an extension of the Campground in Lake Louise, however in winter it is free, plowed and with access to restrooms and huge garbage cans. The entrance to the lot says “no overnight parking,” however, signs at the Lake Louise ski area parking are directing van lifers to use that lot for overnight.
It seems to be tolerated by Parks Canada, who come by frequently to patrol and make sure everything is in order.
Leave no trace
As always, if you decide to stay here, follow local laws and regulations. Leave the place better than you found and be respectful of rare gems like this so they can be preserved for many more to come.
Amenities around town
Banff is a bigger town that one might think. There are lots and lots of shops on the main drag with free parking about a 10 minute walk away by the train station. There is closer parking as well but it was around 7CAD per hour.
Aside from the coffee shop on the mountain, Java Lift, we went to two other cafes in town. The first was Whitebark Cafe which was located in the lobby of a hotel, and served delicious coffee as well as some food. The second was Mountain Folk Coffee which is serving beans from Spilt Milk, one of our favorite places in Revelstoke (try the focaccia if you are there, it is to die for).
There is a grocery store in town that has everything one would need except filtered water for our 7 gallon water jug. However, we were able to fill that at the base of Banff Sunshine at the end of the day when the foot traffic died down. There is bottle refill station next to the restrooms by the ticket window, which was constructed in a way that we could hold the water jug under it and fill it. Thank you, what a life saver.
HeyFromAway 
Leave a comment