Meet Your Local Snow Farmers

Here at Sunshine, we don’t make snow, we farm it.

Every great team has a glue guy, the one who holds everything together and makes sure everyone else can shine. At Banff Sunshine Village, that “glue” isn’t just one person, it’s an entire crew. 

Sunshine Village is home to one of the largest snow farming operations on earth. Each year, our 22-person Trail Crew works tirelessly on our slopes to make sure every skier and rider gets to enjoy Canada’s Best Snow at its very best. Using highly specialized snow farming techniques, their mission is to ensure as many flakes as possible of Canada’s Best Snow get caught.

The process starts long before the first flakes fly. In the heat of summer, the Trail Crew pounds over 5,200 pieces of T-steel into the ground, strategically aligning them along highly exposed areas of the mountain. Once the ground freezes, they tie on over 26 kilometers of snow fencing, designed to catch drifts of snow, or “Whales” in key spots across the resort.

As the storms roll in and snow begins to pile high, Trail Crew’s work picks up, they continually monitor, dig out, and re-set the fences on bamboo poles. When the time is right, Cat Crew steps in to spread the accumulated drifts, ensuring that the captured snow is evenly distributed across the trails. Throughout the season, Trail Crew raises and maintains these fences until the spring melt, when everything is rolled up, skied down, and stored away, ready to start the process all over again for the next year.

While snow farming is their main mission, Trail Crew’s responsibilities stretch far beyond fences. They’re often called upon by Ski Patrol to assist with on-mountain incidents and help Snow Safety teams with vital terrain-opening and avalanche mitigation work like ski cutting and boot packing. Whatever the task, Trail Crew brings the same energy, teamwork, and dedication, always eager to lend a hand wherever it’s needed.

So the next time you’re gliding up a chairlift and spot the crew in blue and black working below, give them a wave or a shout of thanks. Chances are, the snow you’re carving through was farmed (and cared for) by them.

Because at Sunshine Village, Trail Crew is truly the secret that keeps Canada’s Best Snow coming back, year in and year out.