The Lake Louise Ski Area is a ski resort

Ski resort

A ski resort is a resort developed for skiing and other winter sports. In Europe a ski resort is a town or village in a ski area - a mountainous area, where there are ski trails and supporting services such as hotels and other accommodation, restaurants, equipment rental and a ski lift system...

 located in Banff National Park

Banff National Park

Banff National Park is Canada's oldest national park, established in 1885 in the Rocky Mountains. The park, located 110–180 kilometres west of Calgary in the province of Alberta, encompasses of mountainous terrain, with numerous glaciers and ice fields, dense coniferous forest, and alpine...

, near the village of Lake Louise

Lake Louise, Alberta

Lake Louise is a hamlet in Alberta, Canada within Improvement District No. 9 Banff . It is named for the nearby Lake Louise, which in turn was named after the Princess Louise Caroline Alberta , the fourth daughter of Queen Victoria, and the wife of John Campbell, the 9th Duke of Argyll, who was the...

, Alberta

Alberta

Alberta is a province of Canada. It had an estimated population of 3.7 million in 2010 making it the most populous of Canada's three prairie provinces...

, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

. It can be reached from Banff

Banff, Alberta

Banff is a town within Banff National Park in Alberta, Canada. It is located in Alberta's Rockies along the Trans-Canada Highway, approximately west of Calgary and east of Lake Louise....

, from where it is a 35 to 45 minute drive 57 km (35.4 mi) west on Trans-Canada Highway

Trans-Canada Highway

The Trans-Canada Highway is a federal-provincial highway system that joins the ten provinces of Canada. It is, along with the Trans-Siberian Highway and Australia's Highway 1, one of the world's longest national highways, with the main route spanning 8,030 km...

, or Calgary

Calgary

Calgary is a city in the Province of Alberta, Canada. It is located in the south of the province, in an area of foothills and prairie, approximately east of the front ranges of the Canadian Rockies...

, a 2-hour drive. Lake Louise is one of three major ski resorts located in the Banff National Park.

The resort is situated on the southern slopes of the Merlin Ridge of the Slate Range, between the heights of Mount Richardson

Mount Richardson (Alberta)

Mount Richardson is the highest mountain of the Slate Range located beside Pika Peak in Banff National Park. The mountain was named in 1859 by James Hector after Sir John Richardson who was the ship's surgeon and naturalist on John Franklin's 1819 and 1825 expeditions into the Arctic.The Lake...

, Ptarmigan Peak, Pika Peak

Pika Peak

Pika Peak is a mountain located between Mount Richardson and Ptarmigan Peak in Banff National Park. The mountain was named in 1928 after the pika, the small "rock rabbit" that inhabits alpine regions....

 and Redoubt Mountain

Redoubt Mountain

Redoubt Mountain is a mountain located in Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada. It forms the southern buttress of Boulder Pass....

, all around 3000 m (10,000 ft) above sea level. The base of the slopes is defined by Pipestone River, a tributary of the Bow River

Bow River

The Bow River is a river in the Canadian province of Alberta. It is a tributary of the South Saskatchewan River, and is considered the headwater of the Nelson River....

, immediately north of the intersections between Highway 1A (Bow Valley Trail), Highway 1 (Trans-Canada Highway

Trans-Canada Highway

The Trans-Canada Highway is a federal-provincial highway system that joins the ten provinces of Canada. It is, along with the Trans-Siberian Highway and Australia's Highway 1, one of the world's longest national highways, with the main route spanning 8,030 km...

), and Highway 93 (Icefield Parkway).

Until Autumn 2008, the ski resort was owned and operated by the Resorts of the Canadian Rockies (RCR) company. Recently Charlie Locke

Charlie Locke

Charlie Locke is a Canadian businessman. He is the majority shareholder and president of the Lake Louise Ski Area located in Banff National Park....

, a former owner of the ski area, exercised a buy-back option to reacquire a majority share of Lake Louise from RCR to return as the ski resort's president and operator.

Facilities

The 139 marked ski runs and back bowls on four mountain faces are 25% beginner, 45% intermediate and 30% advanced. The 'Terrain Park' is also designed for riders of all levels. Four full service day lodges are operational during winter. Snowboard

Snowboard

Snowboards are boards, usually with a width the length of one's foot, with the ability to glide on snow. Snowboards are differentiated from monoskis by the stance of the user...

ers have access to all trails and the terrain park.

The Lake Louise sightseeing gondola

Gondola lift

A gondola lift is a type of aerial lift, normally called a cable car, which is supported and propelled by cables from above. It consists of a loop of steel cable that is strung between two stations, sometimes over intermediate supporting towers. The cable is driven by a bullwheel in a terminal,...

 is open year round, offering panoramas of glaciers, natural springs, wildflowers and possibly wildlife (such as grizzly bears

Grizzly Bear

The grizzly bear , also known as the silvertip bear, the grizzly, or the North American brown bear, is a subspecies of brown bear that generally lives in the uplands of western North America...

). Other activities in the resort area include dog sledding, ice skating

Ice skating

Ice skating is moving on ice by using ice skates. It can be done for a variety of reasons, including leisure, traveling, and various sports. Ice skating occurs both on specially prepared indoor and outdoor tracks, as well as on naturally occurring bodies of frozen water, such as lakes and...

, and cross-country skiing

Cross-country skiing

Cross-country skiing is a winter sport in which participants propel themselves across snow-covered terrain using skis and poles...

.

Trails

Easier	Intermediate	Experienced	Difficult (Double Black)
17	25	54	43

Lifts

Lift Name	Length	Vertical	Type	Ride Time	Make	Build Year
Summit Platter	1119 m	410 m	1 Person Platter	8 min.	Mueller GMD Mueller GMD Mueller Lifts AG was a Swiss aerial lift manufacturing firm.GMD stands for Gerhard Mueller Dietlikon.Founded in 1947 by engineer Gerhard Mueller, who is credited with the invention of the modern detachable chairlift in the late 1940s, it was one of the most prolific and respected aerial lift...	1976
Glacier Express Quad	1822 m	442 m	High Speed Quad Detachable chairlift A detachable chairlift or high-speed chairlift is a type of passenger aerial lift, which, like a fixed-grip chairlift, consists of numerous chairs attached to a constantly moving wire rope that is strung between two terminals over intermediate towers. They are now commonplace at all but the...	7 min.	Leitner Leitner Group Leitner Group is an Italian conglomerate, based in the province of South Tyrol, that owns and runs several industrial and equipment companies....	2000
Grizzly Express Gondola	2918 m	736 m	6 Person Gondola Gondola lift A gondola lift is a type of aerial lift, normally called a cable car, which is supported and propelled by cables from above. It consists of a loop of steel cable that is strung between two stations, sometimes over intermediate supporting towers. The cable is driven by a bullwheel in a terminal,...	12 min.	Leitner Poma Poma Poma, also known as Pomagalski S.A. is a French company, specialising in construction of cable-driven lift systems, including fixed and detachable chairlifts, gondola lifts, funiculars, aerial tramways, people movers, and surface lifts. Poma has installed more than 7800 devices on five continents,...	2003
Sunny T-Bar	361 m	44 m	2 Person T-Bar	3 min.	Doppelmayr Doppelmayr The Doppelmayr Garaventa Group is an Austrian-Swiss company that manufactures chairlifts, cable cars, gondolas, surface tows for ski and amusement parks as well as urban people movers and material handling systems. To date, Doppelmayr and Garaventa have produced over 13,700 installations in 78...
Paradise Triple Chair	1100 m	394 m	Fixed Grip Triple Chairlift An elevated passenger ropeway, or chairlift, is a type of aerial lift, which consists of a continuously circulating steel cable loop strung between two end terminals and usually over intermediate towers, carrying a series of chairs...	9 min.	Lift Engineering Lift Engineering Lift Engineering, more commonly known as Yan Lifts, was a major ski lift manufacturer in North America. Founded in 1965 and based in Carson City, Nevada, the firm came under scrutiny by state safety officials after a fatal accident in 1985, and filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in July...	1982
Ptarmigan Quad Chair	1021 m	412 m	Fixed Grip Quad Chairlift An elevated passenger ropeway, or chairlift, is a type of aerial lift, which consists of a continuously circulating steel cable loop strung between two end terminals and usually over intermediate towers, carrying a series of chairs...	9 min.	Leitner Poma Poma Poma, also known as Pomagalski S.A. is a French company, specialising in construction of cable-driven lift systems, including fixed and detachable chairlifts, gondola lifts, funiculars, aerial tramways, people movers, and surface lifts. Poma has installed more than 7800 devices on five continents,...	2008
Larch Express Chair	1463 m	375 m	High Speed Quad Detachable chairlift A detachable chairlift or high-speed chairlift is a type of passenger aerial lift, which, like a fixed-grip chairlift, consists of numerous chairs attached to a constantly moving wire rope that is strung between two terminals over intermediate towers. They are now commonplace at all but the...	6 min.	Leitner Leitner Group Leitner Group is an Italian conglomerate, based in the province of South Tyrol, that owns and runs several industrial and equipment companies....	1998
Top of the World 6-Pack Express	1344 m	411 m	High-Speed 6 Pack Detachable chairlift A detachable chairlift or high-speed chairlift is a type of passenger aerial lift, which, like a fixed-grip chairlift, consists of numerous chairs attached to a constantly moving wire rope that is strung between two terminals over intermediate towers. They are now commonplace at all but the...	5 min.	Leitner Poma Poma Poma, also known as Pomagalski S.A. is a French company, specialising in construction of cable-driven lift systems, including fixed and detachable chairlifts, gondola lifts, funiculars, aerial tramways, people movers, and surface lifts. Poma has installed more than 7800 devices on five continents,...	2003
Magic Carpet	79 m	18 m	Surface Lift	2 min.		2006

External links

• Ski Louise.com - official site
• Ski Banff - Lake Louise - Sunshine - Tri-Area Joint Venture