Nakiska ski resort in Kananaskis announces plans for summer operation

Expansion planned for Nakiska Ski Area will bring mountain biking and lift-serviced hiking to the resort. It raises concerns about the impact on local wildlife.

Nakiska ski resort is planning to open its slopes to summer activities come 2027.

Typically closed in the summer months, the Kananaskis Country ski resort is proposing Alberta’s only lift-serviced mountain biking trails – at a mountain resort – and the province’s first mountain coaster, along with a hiking trail network and sightseeing activities as part of their summer operation plans released on Wednesday (April 15).

“We took a look at what Albertans tend to do and mountain biking is a big one but also family-friendly activities, and that’s what the mountain coaster is targeted at,” said Neil Jackson, senior vice president of Resorts of the Canadian Rockies (RCR), which owns and operates Nakiska Ski Area.

• The information you need to know, sent directly to you: Download the CTV News App

The plans will not expand beyond Nakiska’s existing lease area, which is located within Evan-Thomas Provincial Recreation Area, Jackson says.

In late 2025, however, the province changed boundaries around Nakiska when it created a new all-season resort area under the All-Season Resorts Act, shifting about 929 hectares out of Evan-Thomas Provincial Recreation Area and into land now administered by the ministry of tourism and sport.

The boundary change drew public attention because several popular public trails, including Troll Falls, Stoney, Bill Milne, Hay Meadows and Skogan Pass, now fall within the resort area boundary. The province later issued an order saying existing trail use can continue as it did before, while Nakiska’s current proposal remains focused on adding summer activities within the ski hill’s existing footprint.

“The only change that we’re making is introducing summer activities,” Jackson said.

“The existing Silver Chair is going to be the hub of summer operations,” he added, noting the lift will give mountain bikers access to 30 kilometres of beginner, intermediate and advanced terrain, including technical and flow trails.

Running year-round, the mountain coaster, with 970-metres of track, will operate out of the hill’s existing tubing area, while over three-km of lift-serviced hiking and interpretive tours will also be accessed via the Silver Chair.

“Nakiska’s bread and butter in wintertime is family, but we also cater for expert skiers to ski racing programs, so our intent with our summer operation is essentially to duplicate that,” Jackson said.

The hill also plans to offer e-bike rentals for people to use on trails throughout Kananaskis Country.

Following the introduction of the Alberta government’s All-Season Resorts Act, Nakiska, alongside Fortress Mountain in Kananaskis and Castle Mountain in Castle Provincial Park, were named the province’s first all-season resorts in December 2025.

The designation gives Nakiska the go-ahead to submit tourism projects that can operate year-round.

“We were given authorization to proceed with planning for summer activities, so up until now, the Evan-Thomas Provincial Recreation Area management plan precludes summer activities at Nakiska and the change to all-season resorts allowed us to consider, plan and propose summer activities,” Jackson said.

“What it doesn’t do is absolve the responsibilities for environmental analysis and study, First Nations consultations and, in this particular case, public discussion.”

Environmental impact assessments, required by the act, occurred in 2022 and then again in 2025, continuing into 2026, with studies focused on bighorn sheep and grizzly bear activity in the area.

“We identified a bear activity area adjacent to the bottom of the existing Gold Chairlift and in doing so, we changed where our summer activities would then operate out of,” Jackson said, noting original plans placed the Olympic Chair and Mid Mountain Lodge at the hub of operations but were then switched to the Silver Chair.

Within the resort’s plans to build a network of summer hiking trails, a proposed “expert trail” would intersect with the existing Centennial Ridge Trail where an annual spring closure is in place during bighorn sheep lambing season.

The proposed out-and-back trail will follow the same closure, according to RCR.

“Our big focus is going to be on education for both staff and guests because, historically, we’ve shared the Kananaskis Valley with animals in the off-season, but of course we have a small staff and as we introduce a large number of guests, we have to understand what is going to result from that,” Jackson said, adding that a human wildlife interaction management plan is in the works.

RCR says they started engagement with Stoney Nakoda First Nations in May 2024.

“As part of the planning for summer operations and for winter operations, for that matter, we’re going to collaborate [with Stoney Nakoda] to develop an interpretive trail. It’s going to talk to cultural significance, it’s going to talk to the environment from their perspective,” he added, referencing RCR’s plans for an interpretive educational program.

Public consultation on the plans is open for two weeks and feedback on the proposed summer activities can be submitted through Nakiska’s website.

Lift-serviced mountain biking a first for Alberta resorts

Working with Canmore-based former pro mountain biker and master trail designer, Matt Hadley, on trail design, Jackson says the bike trails will fill a need in Alberta’s growing cycling community.

“If you take a look at the greater Calgary area, there’s basically two million people there and 3.3 per cent consider themselves mountain bikers, so there’s quite a pool,” he said.

Alongside Nakiska, RCR operates three B.C. ski resorts, including Fernie Alpine Resort, Kicking Horse Mountain Resort and Kimberley Mountain Resort, with all three offering lift-serviced mountain biking.

“If you take a look at the tourism deficits to B.C. … we’re obviously not going to be able to eliminate that but we’re going to be able to help the province as a whole chip away at that deficit to B.C.”

With a parking lot built for 1,600 vehicles, the resort also hopes that summer operations will alleviate parking pressures in the Kananaskis region that saw a record five million visitors in 2025.

“Simply by opening the gates, the significant parking that we have available becomes available to the general public,” Jackson said, adding that Kananaskis Village and popular trails like Troll Falls and Centennial Ridge can be accessed from the resort’s parking lot.

“By default, that has to provide some relief to the day use areas that surround us. Right now, you quite often see people parking on the roads.”

Jackson says that while all-season resort status gives Nakiska a green light to submit an application for development, plans for summer operation have been in the works for 20 years.

“It’s been a long process to get to where we’re at right now,” he said. “I’m very grateful for the change that the present government has introduced that’s going to allow for this.”

While the proposal is still under review by the province, Jackson is hopeful construction can start in May and anticipates the hill opening in early summer 2027. If approved, summer activities would run from late May to early September.

“The coaster might not open until July next year, but the mountain bike trails will open as soon as we can get the snow off them and get them dried out for use.”

Public feedback is available at: skinakiska.com