Average Annual Snowfall of 100 US Ski Resorts

Planning a snowboarding trip? Trying to decide where to go?

There are many factors that come into your decision about where your next snowboarding trip might be. Some of those might include:

How far do I want to go?
What kind of terrain do I want?
Do I want somewhere with a terrain park?
What is the lodging like?
What is the weather like?
How much rideable terrain is there?
Are there backcountry or sidecountry areas to explore?

And the list goes on. In this post, we are going to look at just one factor. If you’re next trip is going to be somewhere within the United States and you can’t decide where, maybe you just go to the closest destination with the most snow? That’s why we researched 100 different ski resorts all around the US to determine each resort’s average annual snowfall.

And not surprisingly there were a few particular states that stood out among the rest. And due to the amount of snowfall those states get, it wasn’t surprising that those states also play host to the most number of ski resorts.

So without further delay, here they are:

100 US Ski Resorts and their Average Annual Snowfall

What did surprise us was the number of different states that were actually home to ski resorts. We found ski resorts in 35 different states. That’s 70% of all states with a ski resort. And maybe we missed a state or two.

If you know of a state with a ski resort that we’ve missed, be sure to let us know in the comments section at the end of this post.

We’ll also leave some total stats at the bottom of the post, for those who are interested.

Colorado:

Aspen/Snowmass – Average Annual Snowfall: 283 inches
Vail – Average Annual Snowfall: 232 inches
Breckenridge – Average Annual Snowfall: 355 inches
Keystone – Average Annual Snowfall: 198 inches
Telluride – Average Annual Snowfall: 167 inches
Copper Mountain – Average Annual Snowfall: 305 inches
Purgatory Resort – Average Annual Snowfall: 260 inches
Steamboat Resort – Average Annual Snowfall: 349 inches

California:

Mammoth Mountain – Average Annual Snowfall: 400 inches
Palisades Tahoe/Alpine Meadows – Average Annual Snowfall: 450 inches
Heavenly – Average Annual Snowfall: 262 inches
Sugar Bowl Resort – Average Annual Snowfall: 500 inches
Kirkwood Mountain Resort – Average Annual Snowfall: 500 inches
Bear Valley Mountain Resort – Average Annual Snowfall: 359 inches
Sierra-at-Tahoe – Average Annual Snowfall: 480 inches
China Peak Mountain Resort – Average Annual Snowfall: 150 inches
Dodge Ridge Ski Area – Average Annual Snowfall: 300 inches

Utah:

Park City – Average Annual Snowfall: 365 inches
Deer Valley – Average Annual Snowfall: 300 inches
Alta – Average Annual Snowfall: 551 inches
Snowbird – Average Annual Snowfall: 500 inches
Snowbasin Resort – Average Annual Snowfall: 300 inches

Vermont:

Stowe Mountain Resort – Average Annual Snowfall: 314 inches
Killington Resort – Average Annual Snowfall: 250 inches
Stratton Mountain – Average Annual Snowfall: 180 inches
Jay Peak Resort – Average Annual Snowfall: 355 inches
Burke Mountain – Average Annual Snowfall: 217 inches

Montana:

Big Sky Resort – Average Annual Snowfall: 400 inches
Whitefish Mountain Resort – Average Annual Snowfall: 300 inches
Blacktail Mountain Ski Area – Average Annual Snowfall: 250 inches
Bridger Bowl – Average Annual Snowfall: 350 inches
Turner Mountain Ski Resort – Average Annual Snowfall: 300 inches
Lost Trail Powder Mountain – Average Annual Snowfall: 300 inches

Wyoming:

Jackson Hole Mountain Resort – Average Annual Snowfall: 459 inches
Grand Targhee Resort – Average Annual Snowfall: 500 inches
Snow King Mountain Resort – Average Annual Snowfall: 157 inches

Idaho:

Sun Valley – Average Annual Snowfall: 220 inches
Schweitzer Mountain Resort – Average Annual Snowfall: 300 inches
Bogus Basin – Average Annual Snowfall: 200 inches

New York:

Whiteface Mountain Resort – Average Annual Snowfall: 200 inches
Hunter Mountain – Average Annual Snowfall: 85 inches
Plattekill Mountain – Average Annual Snowfall: 175 inches
Toggenburg Mountain – Average Annual Snowfall: 120 inches
Holiday Valley – Average Annual Snowfall: 180 inches
Greek Peak Mountain Resort – Average Annual Snowfall: 122 inches
Gore Mountain – Average Annual Snowfall: 150 inches
Bristol Mountain – Average Annual Snowfall: 120 inches

New Mexico:

Taos Ski Valley – Average Annual Snowfall: 305 inches
Ski Santa Fe – Average Annual Snowfall: 225 inches
Angel Fire Resort – Average Annual Snowfall: 210 inches
Red River Ski Area – Average Annual Snowfall: 214 inches

Oregon:

Mt. Hood Meadows – Average Annual Snowfall: 430 inches
Timberline Lodge – Average Annual Snowfall: 400 inches
Mt. Bachelor – Average Annual Snowfall: 462 inches
Hoodoo Ski Area – Average Annual Snowfall: 350 inches

Washington:

Crystal Mountain – Average Annual Snowfall: 486 inches
Stevens Pass – Average Annual Snowfall: 460 inches
49 Degrees North Mountain Resort – Average Annual Snowfall: 301 inches

New Hampshire:

Cannon Mountain – Average Annual Snowfall: 160 inches
Loon Mountain – Average Annual Snowfall: 160 inches
Bretton Woods – Average Annual Snowfall: 200 inches
Black Mountain – Average Annual Snowfall: 115 inches

Michigan:

Boyne Mountain Resort – Average Annual Snowfall: 140 inches
Boyne Highlands – Average Annual Snowfall: 125 inches
Crystal Mountain – Average Annual Snowfall: 132 inches
Nub’s Nob – Average Annual Snowfall: 123 inches

Minnesota:

Lutsen Mountains – Average Annual Snowfall: 100 inches
Giants Ridge – Average Annual Snowfall: 60 inches

Wisconsin:

Alpine Valley Resort – Average Annual Snowfall: 50 inches
Cascade Mountain – Average Annual Snowfall: 50 inches
Granite Peak – Average Annual Snowfall: 100 inches

Maine:

Sunday River – Average Annual Snowfall: 167 inches
Sugarloaf – Average Annual Snowfall: 200 inches

Massachusetts:

Wachusett Mountain – Average Annual Snowfall: 100 inches
Jiminy Peak – Average Annual Snowfall: 100 inches

Connecticut:

Mohawk Mountain – Average Annual Snowfall: 50 inches
Ski Sundown – Average Annual Snowfall: 65 inches

Alaska:

Alyeska Resort – Average Annual Snowfall: 650 inches
Eaglecrest Ski Area – Average Annual Snowfall: 350 inches

Arizona:

Arizona Snowbowl – Average Annual Snowfall: 260 inches

Nevada:

Mt. Rose Ski Tahoe – Average Annual Snowfall: 350 inches

North Carolina:

Beech Mountain Resort – Average Annual Snowfall: 80 inches
Sugar Mountain Resort – Average Annual Snowfall: 78 inches
Appalachian Ski Mountain – Average Annual Snowfall: 40 inches

Pennsylvania:

Seven Springs Mountain Resort – Average Annual Snowfall: 135 inches
Camelback Mountain Resort – Average Annual Snowfall: 50 inches

West Virginia:

Snowshoe Mountain Resort – Average Annual Snowfall: 180 inches
Canaan Valley Resort – Average Annual Snowfall: 180 inches
Timberline – Average Annual Snowfall: 56 inches

Virginia:

Wintergreen Resort – Average Annual Snowfall: 35 inches
Massanutten Resort – Average Annual Snowfall: 34 inches

New Jersey:

Mountain Creek – Average Annual Snowfall: 65 inches

Illinois:

Chestnut Mountain Resort – Average Annual Snowfall: 100 inches

Indiana:

Paoli Peaks – Average Annual Snowfall: 50 inches

Ohio:

Mad River Mountain – Average Annual Snowfall: 36 inches

Iowa:

Sundown Mountain Resort – Average Annual Snowfall: 40 inches

Missouri:

Hidden Valley Ski Resort – Average Annual Snowfall: 50 inches

North Dakota:

Bottineau Winter Park – Average Annual Snowfall: 30 inches

South Dakota:

Terry Peak Ski Area – Average Annual Snowfall: 150 inches

Tennessee:

Ober Gatlinburg – Average Annual Snowfall: 30 inches

Maryland:

Wisp Resort – Average Annual Snowfall: 100 inches

Overall Stats

This exercise gave rise to some interesting facts. Perhaps the most interested was the number of ski resorts with less than 50inches of average annual snowfall – the lowest, as you’ll see below, being just 30″ (0.8m). It’s not surprising that a lot of these ski resorts have to employ snowmaking to exist!

But with an average annual snowfall of 227″ (5.8m) there’s also a lot of natural snow to go around.

Not surprisingly an Alaskan resort took the crown for the highest average annual snowfall with a whopping 650″ (16.5m)!

# of states with ski resorts	35
# of ski resorts looked at	101
Highest snowfall average	Alyeska Resort, Alaska – 650” (16.5m)
Lowest snowfall average	Ober Gatlinburg, Tennessee – 30” (0.8m)
# of ski resorts with more than 300” (7.6m) of average yearly snowfall	35 – these had a collective average of 394” (10m)
# of ski resorts with more than 400” (7.6m) of average yearly snowfall	16 – with an average of 477” (12.1m)
# of ski resorts with more than 500” (7.6m) of average yearly snowfall	6 – with an average of 534” (13.6m)
# of ski resorts with 50” (1.3m) or less of average yearly snowfall	13 – with an average of 42” (1.1m)
States with the highest average*	1. Washington – with an average of 416” (10.6m) 2. Oregon – 411″ (10.4m) 3. Utah – 403″ (10.2m) 4. California – 378″ (9.6m) 5. Wyoming – 372″ (9.4m)

*note that this is based only on the ski resorts that we looked at and we didn’t look at every ski resort in each state, so this could be a different state, if we were to look at every single ski resort. And this says nothing about the quality of snow, which is whole other debate. We’ll leave for another day!

If you want more historical snowfall info, or current snow conditions and more, we found onthesnow.com to be a great resource for this.

Thanks for Reading

Please remember that these are approximate values, and it’s advisable to check with the specific resorts for the most accurate and up-to-date information.

And if there are any states that we’ve missed that have ski resorts, be sure to let us know in the comments section below. And if you know their average annual snowfall, even better!

We also know that we haven’t listed every ski resort in the US! So, if your local or favorite resort isn’t here, let us know in the comments section too and we’ll get it added in.