Lake Louise
Lake Louise Ski Resort is a ski area located in the province of Alberta in Canada. The resort is in the town of Lake Louise, AB.
We recently ranked all of Alberta's ski resorts, so you can see where Lake Louise stacks up against all its nearby ski hills!
Season Passes
Lake Louise is a part of the Ikon Ski Pass network. This allows you to buy one lift pass, and ski at all or most of the Ikon-sponsored slopes with it throughout the year, depending on the type of pass you bought.
Lake Louise is a part of the Mountain Collective network. This allows you to buy one lift pass, and ski at all of the slopes that are also a part of the Collective.
Lodging Options
There are numerous options to stay at Lake Louise around the resort. Check out the available options with the form below.
Lake Louise Mountain Resort Terrain Overview
Lake Louise has a total of 164 ski trails, which are serviced by 11 ski lifts, gondolas and/or trams. The amount of skiable area in this park is huge, with a maximum of 4,200 acres available to skiers. This area is equivalent to 1,700 hectares, 6.6 square miles, or 17.0 square kilometers.
Lake Louise's slopes see on average 179 inches (4.5 meters) of snowfall a year. That is almost 14 feet every year!
Total Runs
164
Lifts
11
Skiable Acres
4,200(17 km2)
Annual Snowfall
179"(455 cm)
Lake Louise Ski Resort Elevation
Lake Louise Ski Resort has a summit elevation of 8,650 feet, or 2,636 meters. However, not all of that elevation is able to be skied. The base of the ski slope sits at 5,400 feet above sea level, creating a ski hill that is 3,250 feet (991 meters) high. This is referred to as the slope's vertical drop - or a measure of how high the skiable hill is.
The summit of 8,650 feet makes this ski resort one of the highest in the country. The average ski slope summit is around 4,000 feet, so this is extremely high compared to its peers.
Summit Elevation
8,650'(2,636 m)
Vertical Drop
3,250'(991 m)
Base Elevation
5,400'(1,646 m)
Lake Louise Ski Resort Difficulty Level
Difficulty Score™
65.8out of 100
DID YOU KNOW?
At Parks & Trips, we've created a proprietary Difficulty Score that attempts to show how difficult a particular ski slope is. We get to this number by combining a number of metrics for each resort and comparing them to its peers. Most of the score is based off the amount of easy-intermediate-expert slopes by acreage and the maximum vertical drop of the overall resort, but also includes a few lesser-used metrics as well.
Our algorithm compares each resort’s metrics with all others in North America, then assigns each a Difficulty Score, which we use to rank them accordingly. Resorts with a lower score are easier to ski than those with a higher one. However, a high score does not mean that the resort does not have any easy slopes, or vice versa. This is just an overall score given to the resort based on all its metrics grouped together.
Skiable Terrain by Difficulty Level
Lake Louise has 4,200 total skiable acres, which can be broken down into the three main groups of difficulty: Beginner, Intermediate, and Expert.
Lake Louise's difficulty level is higher than average, which is because 45% of its ski trails are rated as intermediate, and another 30% as expert.
Beginner
25%(1,050 acres)
Beginner trails (identified by a green circle) are the easiest trails on the hill with a gradual 25% or less gradient, and are usually wide to accommodate beginner skiers.
Intermediate
45%(1,890 acres)
Intermediate trails (identified by a blue square) are usually the most popular and crowded runs, which have a slope of anywhere between 25-40%.
Expert
30%(1,260 acres)
Expert trails (identified by a black diamond... or two) are the hardest slopes on the mountain, and have very steep gradients over 40%.
Is Lake Louise Ski Resort good for beginners?
Lake Louise is above average in its difficulty level, so... probably not? It will depend on which trails you take since only 70% of its trails rated for either beginner or intermediate skill levels.
Lake Louise Ski Resort Location
Lake Louise Ski Resort is located in the province of Alberta, Canada. This ski area is nearest the town of Lake Louise, AB.
Address:
Lake Louise, AB T0L Canada
View on Google Maps
Website:
skilouise.com
GPS Coordinates:
51.44200, -116.16200
Getting to Lake Louise Mountain Resort
By Car: If you are driving, you would set your GPS to either the ski resort's name (Lake Louise Ski Resort), its coordinates of 51.44200, -116.16200 (latitude, longitude), or simply drive towards the town of Lake Louise, AB to get close.
By Air: If you are coming in from across the country, then you may need to board an airplane to get here.
A large airport has scheduled major airline service with millions of passengers per year. This type of airport always accepts international flights. Here are the closest large airport(s) to Lake Louise Ski Resort.
| Name | Code | City | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Calgary International Airport | YYC | Calgary, AB | 153 km |
| Edmonton International Airport | YEG | Edmonton, AB | 271 km |
A medium-sized airport has scheduled regional airline service. This type of airport may or may not accept international flights. Here are the closest medium-sized airport(s) to Lake Louise.
| Name | Code | City | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cranbrook/Canadian Rockies International Airport | YXC | Cranbrook, BC | 205 km |
| Castlegar/West Kootenay Regional Airport | YCG | Castlegar, BC | 260 km |
There may also be much smaller regional airports next to Lake Louise Ski Resort, but we didn't list them here due to the fact that no major airlines go through them.
Other Nearby Ski Resorts
Skiers will - especially if coming from far away - try and visit a couple different slopes all in the same trip. Here are the closest other ski slopes within 100 miles of Lake Louise Ski Resort.
| Name | Location | Summit | Difficulty Score™ | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Banff Sunshine Village | Banff, AB | 8,957 ft | 68% | 46 km |
| Mount Norquay | Banff, AB | 6,998 ft | 53% | 47 km |
| Kicking Horse | Golden, BC | 8,218 ft | 90% | 64 km |
| Nakiska Ski | Kananaskis, AB | 7,415 ft | 60% | 89 km |
| Fortress Mountain Resort | Kananaskis, AB | 8,400 ft | 57% | 95 km |
| Panorama Mountain | Panorama, BC | 8,038 ft | 87% | 109 km |
| Fairmont Hot Springs Resort Ski Area | Fairmont Hot Springs, BC | 5,200 ft | 44% | 125 km |
Lake Louise Ski Resort Mountain Stats
| Name | Statistic |
|---|---|
| Summit Elevation | 8,650 ft |
| Base Elevation | 5,400 ft |
| Vertical Drop | 3,250 ft |
| Trails | 164 (25% Beginner, 45% Intermediate, 30% Expert) |
| Lifts | 11 |
| Skiable Acres | 4,200 |
| Avg. Annual Snowfall | 179 inches |