This Canadian Festival Transforms Banff National Park and Lake Louise Into a Winter Wonderland — With Giant Snow Sculptures, Skijoring, and Sleigh Rides

By now, the most beautiful places in the world are protected, typically as national parks — providing equal access to anyone willing to make the trip and pay the entrance fee. Banff National Park, which was Canada’s first and is the flagship of the country’s park system, is world-renowned for its towering peaks and turquoise glacial lakes. The park is even a designated UNESCO World Heritage Site, a title that only goes to show how beautiful and special this corner of Canada is.

In addition to ski resorts and hiking trails, two communities within the park have long provided guests with a basecamp for their Banff National Park adventures: the resort town of Banff and the hamlet of Lake Louise.

In the winter, these communities get their turn to shine, with an annual SnowDays celebration that transforms them into a full-on snowglobe. 

This season, SnowDays will run from Jan. 19 to Feb. 4, 2024, with cold-weather events in both Banff and Lake Louise. Highlights include a skijoring showcase down Banff Avenue, where skiers and snowboarders are pulled through a course by a horse and rider. There's plenty of ongoing winter fun, including a winter gallery of giant snow sculptures, downhill and cross-country skiing, dog sledding, sleigh rides, and ice skating on the most beautiful rink in the world: Lake Louise. 

The unveiling of the snow sculptures and the SnowDays Play Zone, both in the town of Banff, kick things off on Jan. 19. The former includes work from snow artists from all over the world who come to Banff to carve their creations out of a massive block of snow, while the latter is a winter fun zone with every snow sport imaginable — from sledding to curling and fat-tire biking. 

While events like the snow sculpture tour and play zone are ongoing, other events are set to take place over a certain time frame. One of the most notable, skijoring, allows visitors to witness Alberta cowboys and cowgirls ride their horses on a snowy track with a skier or snowboarder in tow. The Jan. 20 event in Banff is something you have to see to believe.

Down the road in Lake Louise, the Ice Magic showcase takes place on the grounds of the Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise. The event, which is an official International Ice Carving Competition that has taken place on the shores of the lake for 30 years, will welcome world-class ice carvers for a competition in creativity and skill. On Jan. 26 and Jan. 27, the 30-hour-long live ice carving competition takes place, with evening viewing of the finished, lit-up sculptures on Jan. 28 and again the weekend of Feb. 2-4. There will also be ice carving demonstrations over Feb. 2-4. It is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to watch ice carvers in action and walk among the lit-up ice sculptures at night. 

Beyond the special SnowDays events, there is ongoing downhill skiing at the area’s SkiBig3 mountains —  Lake Louise Ski Resort, Mt. Norquay, and Banff Sunshine — and both horse-drawn sleigh rides and dog sledding adventures.

The SnowDays events are all free except for Ice Magic on Lake Louise, which requires advance online reservations. The event is $14 for adults and $7 for kids ages three to 12. People skiing at Lake Louise Ski Resort over those weekends get half price, while guests staying at hotels in Banff or Lake Louise get free access.