Most North American ski areas have already shut down for the season and as May progresses, even fewer will remain standing. Alberta’s Banff Sunshine Village is about to join that list on May 18. At that point they’ll be wrapping up one of the best seasons in recent memory: roughly 1,000 cm of snow (almost 400 inches). The resort averages around 600 cm a year, which they had already surpassed when March dumped an exceptional 200 cm while many places in the U.S. were sweating through the hottest end-of-winter month on record.
Earlier this week the resort announced that the May 18 celebration won’t be the end of their 2025-2026 snow-riding season. They’ll be shutting down operations for several weeks before reopening in the second half of June for a short summer stint that runs into July.
“Our decision to host summer skiing is thanks to record snowfall,” the resort acknowledged.
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As of May 6, the resort is sitting on a mid-mountain base of 182 cm and 238 cm on the upper mountain. And the cams look more inviting now than most mountains did in the dead of winter. The current plan, according to the announcement, is to open the Strawberry Express and “maybe another lift.” That chair runs about halfway up Mount Standish on its eastern side with access to mostly beginner-friendly terrain.
“This season has been a bit of a fairy tale and we couldn’t have written it to be as great as it has turned out to be if we had tried,” said Kendra Scurfield, vice-president of brand and communications for Sunshine, adding “it won’t be like deep powder turns during summer skiing, but it will be slushy summer skiing – high vibes – and just with the novelty of skiing in July in the Canadian Rockies.”
