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Huge Improvements Coming to Banff's Lake Louise 🏔️

(Vol. 7)

Welcome to the latest PeakRankings newsletter! In this series, we round up the best news and deals from the ski industry.

📹 Last Week’s Videos:

• Why All Major Utah Ski Resorts Exist Within Just a Small Sliver of the State

• OpenSnow Weather Forecasting Service Review

• Colorado Ski Resorts Ranked: 2023-24

Lake Louise Announces Multiple Significant Projects, Including New Lifts and Terrain Expansion 🇨🇦

The Scoop 👓

Western Canada’s Lake Louise has four hugely consequential projects coming its way over the next three seasons:

1. For 2024-25, the resort plans to complete its long-anticipated Upper Juniper Express lift. The new lift will feature heated bubbles—the first at Lake Louise.

2. Around the same time, Lake Louise also plans to finish construction on a new mid-mountain lodge near the tops of the Grizzly Gondola and Ptarmigan Chair.

3. For 2025-26, the resort plans to open a noteworthy expansion on Richardson's Ridge, adding 200 new acres of "intermediate and advanced" terrain.

4. The same year, Lake Louise's beginner area will undergo a revamp, receiving a brand-new quad chair and modest learning terrain expansion.

Upon completion of these initiatives, Lake Louise will introduce three new lifts, six new tree-defined trails, and its third mid-mountain lodge. These projects have all been envisioned for years as part of Lake Louise’s Long Range Plan.

What This Means For You 🎿

Upper Juniper Lift 🌳

As planned, the new Upper Juniper lift looks to bring three notable benefits: (1) an additional lift redundancy from the main base to the Top of the World summit; (2) the ability to lap West Bowl with just two lift rides, rather than three; and (3) an insulated route to ride up Lake Louise’s mid-mountain. This bubble quad(?) will start just above the already-installed Lower Juniper Express lift, meaning that lift will no longer lead to nowhere—and hopefully steering traffic away from the other out-of-base lifts. We’re especially hopeful that the bubbles and heated seats take some pressure off the gondola, which has historically been the only comfortable lift to ride during frigidly cold weather days.

Eagle Ridge Lodge 🦅

Lake Louise’s planned upper-mountain lodge has immense practical implications for the resort. Today’s Lake Louise front side lacks adequate facilities, with the only mid-mountain lodge—the Whitehorn Bistro—situated so far down that guests have to return all the way to the base after stopping there. Simply by adding a convenient stopping point that allows for access to upper mountain lifts, we expect Lake Louise to have a hit on its hands.

Sunny Side Beginner Lift ☀️

Lake Louise’s beginner offerings have never been terrible, but one glaring element the resort has historically lacked is a dedicated learning chairlift. The Sunny Side chairlift looks to finally change that, not only providing lift service to the bunny hill, which is currently only served by carpet, but also extending the learning terrain a few hundred feet up the mountain. It’s unclear whether the resort plans to cut any physical learning trails, but we’re excited to see for ourselves.

Richardson’s Ridge Expansion 🏞️

The fourth development, Richardson’s Ridge, is perhaps the biggest one of all. When complete, this 200-acre expansion is expected to serve six new tree-defined trails and a large section of expanded glade terrain, with a brand new high-speed quad holding down lift service.  The southwest-facing tree-defined trails are expected to bring more mellow slopes, while the northeast-facing glades are expected to offer steeper, advanced-level terrain.

However, this investment is also the biggest wild card of the bunch. Richardson’s Ridge will bring about a 932-foot vertical drop, meaning most of its runs will be on the shorter side, and while the resort initially stated that the expansion would bring some beginner terrain, they’ve eliminated mention of that in their latest press release. In addition, the trail pod looks like it might be somewhat annoying to get to; there seems to be no direct access from the Larch zone and Temple backside lodge, and guests coming from these areas will need to take a somewhat circuitous route via the Ptarmigan lift to reach this fairly close-by terrain pod. However, it’s worth noting that Lake Louise does intend to eventually build a short connector lift from the Temple Lodge as part of its master plan, so these access difficulties could end up being a short-term issue.

Ultimately, we’ve never met an expansion that’s ended up being bad for a ski resort, and we’re looking forward to seeing how this one shapes up. 

Considering a trip to Lake Louise? Let us make the trip decisions for you ✈️

Thinking of visiting Lake Louise—and not sure how these investments will impact your trip? Try out PeakRankings Trips, our new trip-planning service. We can plan every aspect of your trip, whether it be to Lake Louise, Banff, or over 90 destination ski resorts across North America!

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