Lake Louise in Alberta is hosting World Cup races and benefiting from good snow conditions.

The record breaking snow conditions in the Canadian Rockies are not letting up as Lake Louise holds World Cup races and Whistler gears up for the winter games.

Whistler’s November snowfall total passed 5.5m (nearly 18 feet) by the morning of November 29th, with a 1.92m (6.5 feet) base, by far the biggest ever for this early in the season.

The good snow news isn’t just restricted to the 2010 Winter Olympic host. Most of Western Canada’s resorts have great snow cover, and several more resorts either opened early last weekend. Others announced they’d be opening earlier than planned in coming weeks, including Fernie and Kicking Horse.

Revelstoke opened upper slopes for a ‘taster weekend’ and will open permanently from next weekend on. The resort now has North America’s largest vertical as well as the only heli and cat ski operations running along-side regular ski lifts from the same base.

Silver Star has received over 40 cm (15in) of snow, enough to make the jump from Nordic skiing to Alpine, according to a resort spokesperson.

Much of the skiing world’s attention has been on Alberta with Lake Louise Ski Area hosting its annual Winterstart World Cup Races. The men’s races took place November 28th and 29th, and the women’s races will be this coming weekend, December 4th through 6th.

The WinterStart Festival takes place over the two weekends and includes the World Cup Alpine Ski Racing followed by a festival within a festival; Christmas in the Rockies, which runs December 5th and 6th.

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