Canada's Ski Season To Start Early
Canada’s Nakiska ski area, the closest resort to Alberta’s capital Calgary, has announced it will open for a ‘preview weekend’ on Saturday 26th and Sunday 27th October, it’s earliest ever.
The resort, which was also a venue for the 1988 Calgary Winter Olympics, is usually one of the first to open in Western Canada in early November along with ski areas around nearby Banff, but this year it looks to be opening a week or two ahead of the others.
Nakiska may also be the first to open in Canada although Quebec ski area Mont-Saint-Sauveur usually opens a run using snowmaking in October, this year it too is reported to be targeting Saturday 26th October. Lifts will open from 10am.
“Trick? Or Treat? It’s not a trick…..but it certainly is a treat! Here at Nakiska Ski Area we have been lucky to have Mother Nature give us some of the biggest and earliest significant snow storms we’ve ever seen, allowing us to start snowmaking at a roaring pace and to open the resort for skiing/riding the earliest we have ever been able to in our 31 year history!” an online statement reads.
Ski areas in western Canada have had several big snowfalls already this autumn, with some areas in BC getting 50cm+ accumulations in September and October although snow falling this early in autumn tends to melt away before a base begins to settle.
Apex in BC is pictured below earlier this month and the picture top of Nakiska was taken on 8th October.
