The wind-battered peaks of Fortress Mountain have been quiet for two decades, at least if you don't count the hum of film crews or the occasional rumble of a cat-skiing engine. But the silence is officially over. Right now, a high-stakes battle is playing out over the future of this iconic Kananaskis landscape, and it’s about a lot more than just fixing a broken bridge or spinning some old chairs.
The province just wrapped up its formal public consultation window on February 27, 2026. This wasn't some routine paperwork filing. It’s the first real-world application of the All-Season Resorts Act, a piece of legislation designed to turn Alberta’s mountains into a year-round economic engine. We’re talking about a $100 million first phase and a 15-year master plan that would transform a "brownfield" ski hill into a mini-city capable of hosting 11,000 people a day.
The vision for a four season Fortress
If you grew up skiing at Fortress before it shuttered in 2004, forget everything you remember. The new plan, backed by Ridge North America and Western Securities Ltd., isn't trying to build a nostalgic mom-and-pop hill. They're aiming for a world-class destination.
The first phase doesn't even focus on skiing. Instead, it’s all about summer:
- Three sightseeing gondolas to move people up the ridges.
- A massive mountain coaster and zip lines.
- A "resort village" featuring hotels, condos, and retail.
- A Nordic spa and even an Indigenous culture center.
The logic is simple. Skiing is expensive and weather-dependent. By focusing on sightseeing and summer "adventure nodes," the developers can tap into the five million people already flooding Kananaskis Country every year. They want to capture the "drive-by" tourist from Calgary or the international visitor who finds Banff too crowded.
Why conservationists are sounding the alarm
It’s not all blueprints and champagne toasts. Groups like the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS) are basically screaming from the mountaintops that this is too much, too fast. The site is a critical corridor for grizzly bears and wolverine. It also sits on 17% of the designated critical habitat for bull trout, a species already on the ropes.
The biggest point of contention? The scale. Critics argue that adding a facility that can handle 10,000 visitors daily in an area already struggling with traffic and human-wildlife conflict is a recipe for disaster. There's also the weird history of the land itself. To make this happen, the province actually removed 131 hectares from Spray Lakes Provincial Park to expand the resort's lease. That’s a move that sets a nervous precedent for anyone who cares about protected areas.
The water controversy that won't go away
You can't talk about Fortress without mentioning the water. A few years back, the resort got permission to truck 50 million litres of water off the mountain to be bottled and sold in Calgary. It was a PR nightmare. While the current redevelopment plan talks a big game about "closed-loop systems" and water conservation, many locals haven't forgotten the bottling scheme.
Trust is thin. The developers promise "environmental excellence," but skeptics wonder if a resort of this size can actually exist without sucking the local creeks dry or polluting the headwaters that feed the Bow River.
What this means for your next trip
If the province greens the project, construction could start as early as 2027. But don't go dusting off your skis just yet. Lift-served skiing is tucked away in the later phases of the 15-year plan. For the foreseeable future, Fortress will remain a construction site and a cat-skiing operation.
The outcome of these consultations will tell us exactly what the Alberta government values more: a $4 billion boost to the tourism economy or the "quiet character" of Kananaskis. If you missed the formal survey, you can still track the progress through the Alberta All-Season Resorts portal. Watch this space closely. Fortress isn't just a ski hill anymore; it’s a blueprint for how every mountain in the province might be managed for the next fifty years.
