It’s official: skiers and snowboarders won’t only have one lift to choose from when Banff Sunshine Village, Alberta, reopens for summer skiing later this month.
The resort, in a recent announcement, said that the Standish Express lift will now be in play for as long as conditions permit, joining another lift that was already confirmed: the Strawberry Express.
The Strawberry Express accesses a slew of beginner and intermediate terrain, while Standish climbs higher up the mountain, serving several advanced trails. Sunshine hasn’t confirmed yet exactly which runs the summer skiing will include. Regardless, the addition of Standish makes the summer offering even more fully-fledged.
For those out of the loop, it all starts on June 20 and will continue through July 5. In 2022, Sunshine revived the 1990s tradition of reopening for summer skiing when enough snow piles up.
This past winter fit that bill and then some. Ski resorts around Banff, Alberta, bucked the overall trend across the West and got hit with powder hard. For Sunshine, it ranked among the top three seasons on record for precipitation. And with temperatures staying cold, that meant plenty of snow.
When Sunshine reopens, it’ll be one of the only places for lift-served skiing on the continent. During some seasons, a larger crop of resorts is open this time of year. But after the challenging and often snowless western season, there are fewer options.
Mammoth Mountain, California—a somewhat regular summer skiing haunt—finished its season on June 7. Arapahoe Basin, Colorado, couldn’t make it until June as it has in the past.
Alongside Sunshine, that leaves Timberline Lodge, Oregon, and Beartooth Basin, Wyoming. Beartooth started its summer season on May 25, but it isn’t open right now. According to its website, Beartooth plans to reopen on June 14 or June 15, depending on the road conditions.
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