Alberta has introduced legislation to move the province to permanent daylight time year-round, a change that would take effect this fall if passed. For Alberta's ski industry, that could mean darker winter mornings at exactly the time of year when resorts are trying to compete for Christmas and New Year visitors.
Sunrise in Banff on 21 December 2026 is currently listed at around 8:43 a.m. Under permanent daylight time, that would shift to around 9:43 a.m.
Sunshine Village ski resort in Banff has warned that a later winter sunrise could affect morning mountain operations and potentially push lift openings later. On the same date in Aspen, Colorado, the sun rises at 7:23 a.m. – more than two hours earlier by the clock, and a gap that is hard to explain away with optimism.
The Hour Nobody Asked For
Kendra Scurfield, vice-president of brand and communications at Sunshine Village, has been making this case publicly – and she's worth listening to. Sunshine is one of Canada's best-known ski resorts, and its Christmas season is critical to its winter business.
“We're going to be putting ourselves at a disadvantage,” Scurfield said. “Alberta and the Canadian Rockies are already seen as cold, dark and inhospitable. We're only going to be perpetuating that narrative.”
The picture she paints is specific enough to sting. An international visitor, body-clocked to eastern time, wakes at 8 a.m., raring to get on the mountain – then sits in their hotel lobby for two hours waiting for lifts to open. In Aspen Snowmass ski resort in Colorado, the sun has been up for more than two hours before a 9 a.m. lift opening.
The Extra Hour at the End Doesn't Help
The standard rebuttal is that permanent daylight time adds an hour of light at the end of the day. Scurfield is not convinced.
“People aren't going to ski later,” she said. “They want to get home to dinner, to happy hour, to Christmas shopping. They still have their kids in school for the same hours.”
The Christmas and New Year period is one of the ski industry's most commercially important stretches – and it falls during the darkest part of the year. Compressing the usable ski day at its front end, when guests are fresh and have just paid for lift tickets, is not offset by theoretical extra light at 4 p.m. that most families won't use.
What It Means If You're Planning a Trip
Nothing has been finalised yet, and the legislation still needs to be passed. But if it does, visitors planning a Christmas or New Year ski trip to Banff National Park in the Canadian Rockies should factor a later start into their day.
A compressed ski day isn't a ruined one – but it does change the arithmetic of a holiday. Fewer runs before lunch, less time on a favourite trail, and a slightly more expensive morning coffee habit while you wait for the lifts to open.
For a region competing directly with well-funded American resorts for international ski tourism, the concern is less about one lost hour and more about what that hour signals. Colorado doesn't need the help.