After a pandemic-forced break, Canadian rockies are back open for American skiers

A famed winter playground is open for business after a pandemic-forced break.

The Canadian Rockies, which are within a day’s drive of Spokane, offer a lifetime worth of mountain adventures, be it skiing, climbing or hiking. And with COVID-19 restrictions loosening, Americans can visit Canada again after a nearly two-year break. While the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention still advises Americans to not travel to Canada, due to COVID-19 concerns, regional and national hospitalization rates have fallen and Canada has loosened its border crossing requirements for vaccinated travelers to some extent.

“Americans have been coming back despite the CDC saying we’re a dangerous place to visit,” said Kendra Scurfield, a spokeswoman for the Sunshine Village Ski Resort in Banff, Alberta. “We are starting to see a return. Although we haven’t had any of the record numbers that were pre-COVID.”

It’s been a rough few years for Canadian ski resorts, she said, with roughly 30% of Sunshine’s annual visitation coming from America.

“It’s starting to return. We have had a few of our normal busy days,” she said.

“Canada is safe. If you’re vaccinated come on up and enjoy wide-open carving spaces.”

Other ski-industry professionals echoed Scurfield.

“Since 2020, the three resorts have remained incredibly responsive to the changing restrictions in Alberta,” said Avery Price, a spokesman for Banff Sunshine, Lake Louise and Mt. Norquay resorts. “As believers in the power of outdoor recreation for both physical and mental health, each resort was quick to put strategies in place to ensure a safe and healthy workplace for their team to work and visitors to recreate.”

When I visited Canada earlier this year, ski resorts throughout the Rockies were taking COVID-19 precautions, while still welcoming skiers and boarders.

In addition to requiring proof of vaccination, they also required mask wearing (not a hard ask, considering it was minus 20 degrees some days) and had social distancing rules in place.

Crossing into Canada proved surprisingly easy, the only somewhat onerous requirement being a PCR test showing a negative COVID-19 result (as of March, Canadian border officials are now PCR tests or rapid antigen tests).

I met my good friend Freek Borlee in Calgary. Borlee lives in Holland but is a physical therapist for the Dutch national snowboard team and travels with them occasionally to World Cup competitions.

I picked him up and we drove to Canmore and spent a week there skiing and climbing.

Banff-Sunshine

Our first day of skiing was at Banff Sunshine. This resort, which is about a 40-minute drive from Canmore, boasts a seven-month season running from early November until late May – the longest nonglacial ski season in Canada, according to resort promotional materials.

We skied there on a bitterly cold day, with temperatures nearing minus 20 Fahrenheit. I’d never skied (or really recreated) in that kind of cold and learned a few things.

• Take plenty of breaks, which was easy considering the plush food and drink options at the resort.
• Skiing is actually slower in low temperatures.
• Heated chairlifts are wonderful.

Sunshine has expansive views, of which we got a few sneak peaks in between some clouds. It’s also known as a tough resort for snowboarders, with several flat areas between runs that require strategic speed buildups to get through. After watching Borlee do the one-legged shuffle, I can attest to that fact.

The cold and the flats aside, we had a blast. The mountain, which can get up to 30 feet of snow a year, had received a few inches the night before and we had a blast ripping down groomers and venturing into the trees.

The terrain was incredible, even with one whole peak closed.

Lake Louise

The next day, after having endured negative temperatures for eight hours, we slept in and then drove an hour to Lake Louise for a half-day of skiing. While it was still frigid outside (minus 10 degrees) there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. The resort’s highest point (8,650 feet) provided expansive views of the Bow Valley Parkway and Lake Louise itself.

Plus, snowfall overnight made the skiing sublime and had us kicking ourselves for not waking up earlier. But with one run pushing 5 miles, I’m not sure our legs could have handled a full day anyway. With 4,200 acres of skiable areas, we sampled just the smallest bit of what Lake Louise had to offer.

Ice climbing

The next day we went and ice climbed near Canmore at a place called the Junkyards. It’s a 10-minute walk and easy ice climbing – the perfect introduction for Borlee (Holland doesn’t have ice climbing or mountains) and a great break from skiing.

Lake Louise (again)

For the final full day of our trip we headed back to Lake Louise. Visual conditions weren’t as sublime, but the snow was just as good.

We spent the entire day skiing, stopping only when the lifts closed.

The next morning I drove Borlee back to Calgary and he flew home to Holland and I returned to the United States.