History Made: Lake Louise Opens Winter With Record-Breaking Snowfall

By late December, ski seasons usually settle into a familiar rhythm: solid coverage, improving conditions, cautious optimism. At Lake Louise Ski Resort, that script has been blown apart.

In a series of Instagram posts over the past two weeks, the resort confirmed what skiers have been feeling underfoot. This is the best start to a season Lake Louise has ever recorded.

“We’ve officially smashed our own all-time record for most early-season snowfall,” the resort wrote in a Dec. 28 post, citing 504 centimetres of snow on the upper mountain. “The most snow we’ve ever seen this early in the season.”

The milestone followed closely on the heels of another benchmark. Just four days earlier, Lake Louise said it had recorded its deepest start to winter in 75 years, with snowfall rivaling the legendary 1950–51 season. December has since gone on to become the snowiest December in the resort’s recorded history.

It has been, as the resort branded it, a true #DeepDecember.

Behind the numbers is an operational effort matching the scale of the snowfall. Hundreds of staff have worked to open terrain, manage avalanche risk, and keep lifts spinning through an unusually active early winter.

“It’s been an exceptional start to the season and it doesn’t show signs of stopping,” said Emmett McPartlin, Lake Louise’s Director of Sales and Marketing, in a recent interview on the Planet Ski podcast.

The snow has also arrived just as the resort unveiled a major expansion. On Dec. 17, Lake Louise opened the first phase of Richardson’s Ridge, a long-planned terrain addition served by the new Richardson’s Ridge Express high-speed quad. The 200-acre pod introduces five beginner and intermediate runs, natural glades, and sweeping views into Pika Valley toward Mount Temple, roughly comparable in size to the resort’s existing Larch area.

More advanced terrain is planned in future phases, but the timing of this opening, paired with historic snowfall, has added to the sense that this season is unfolding differently than most.