Top Ski Resorts In The World For Fresh Powder

We proudly present to you the Top Ski Resorts In The World. Resorts you can travel to in knowledge you have a good chance on fresh powder any given day. Data is up to 40 years of historic data gathered from meteorological institutes, not the resorts. More on that at the bottom of this post, see sources. Resorts not on this list are probably lacking since they do not have historic annual snowfall reporting available, or have less than 274″ / 7 meters of annual snowfall. More on how this list was compiled is at the bottom of the post.

Top Ski Resorts In The World For Fresh Powder

You can sort the table by column simply clicking the headers.

#	Resort	Country	Annual Snow	Best Month	Vertical Drop	Exert Runs	Deals
1	Mt. Baker	USA	641″ 16,3 m	02. Februari	1499 ft 457 m	31%
2	Niseko	Japan	595″ 15,1 m	01. Januari	3310 ft 1009 m	30%
3	Rusutsu	Japan	551″ 14,0 m	01. Januari	1994 ft 594 m	30%
4	Asahidake	Japan	549″ 13,9 m	01. Januari	1640 ft 500 m	50%
5	Alta	USA	525″ 13,3 m	02. Februari	2020 ft 616 m	35%
6	Alyeska	USA	513″ 13,0 m	12. December	2500 ft 762 m	60%
7	Kiroro	Japan	512″ 13,0 m	01. Januari	2001 ft 610 m	35%
8	Myoko Kogen	Japan	512″ 13,0 m	02. Februari	3687 ft 1124 m	41%
9	Sierra	USA	480″ 12,2 m	02. Februari	2211 ft 674 m	25%
10	Kirkwood Mountain	USA	473″ 12,0 m	02. Februari	2001 ft 610 m	35%
11	Stevens Pass	USA	471″ 11,9 m	02. Februari	1784 ft 544 m	35%
12	Sugar Bowl	USA	464″ 11,8 m	03. March	1499 ft 457 m	38%
13	Grand Targhee	USA	463″ 11,8 m	02. Februari	2201 ft 671 m	20%
14	Snowbird	USA	461″ 11,7 m	02. Februari	3241 ft 988 m	35%
15	Revelstoke	Canada	453″ 11,5 m	02. Februari	5620 ft 1713 m	56%
16	Happo One	Japan	433″ 11,0 m	02. Februari	3513 ft 1071 m	20%
17	Hakuba 47 Goryu	Japan	433″ 11,0 m	02. Februari	2788 ft 850 m	30%
18	Mt. Hood Meadows	USA	430″ 10,9 m	02. Februari	3635 ft 1108 m	35%
19	Whistler Blackcomb	Canada	407″ 10,3 m	12. December	5734 ft 1748 m	25%
20	Pucon Villaric	Chile	401″ 10,2 m	08. August	3149 ft 960 m	30%
21	Powder Mountain	USA	400″ 10,1 m	02. Februari	1299 ft 396 m	30%
22	Solitude	USA	399″ 10,1 m	12. December	2106 ft 642 m	30%
23	Nevados de Chilla	Chile	398″ 10,1 m	08. August	3599 ft 1097 m	30%
24	Whitewater	Canada	397″ 10,0 m	03. March	1299 ft 396 m	40%
25	Sapporo Kokusai	Japan	396″ 10,0 m	02. Februari	1541 ft 470 m	20%
26	Boreal (Lake Tahoe)	USA	395″ 10,0 m	03. March	498 ft 152 m	15%
27	Anzere (Switzerland)	Switzerland	394″ 10,0 m	02. Februari	4668 ft 1423 m	20%
28	Val Venosta (Nauders)	Italy	394″ 10,0 m	02. Februari	4757 ft 1450 m	63%
29	Crystal Mountain	USA	390″ 9,9 m	02. Februari	2611 ft 796 m	38%
30	Mt. Washington	Canada	383″ 9,8  m	12. December	1414 ft 431 m	35%
31	Brighton	USA	381″ 9,7 m	12. December	1745 ft 532 m	39%
32	Wolf Creek	USA	379″ 9,6 m	12. December	1604 ft 489 m	45%
33	Fernie Alpine Resort	USA	369″ 9,3 m	02. Februari	3500 ft 1067 m	30%
34	Jackson Hole	USA	364″ 9,3 m	02. Februari	4140 ft 1262 m	50%
35	Mt. Bachelor	USA	364″ 9,3 m	02. Februari	2765 ft 843 m	60%
36	Alpine Meadows	USA	362″ 9,2 m	02. Februari	1801 ft 549 m	35%
37	Steamboat	USA	362″ 9,2 m	02. Februari	3667 ft 1118 m	31%
38	Mammoth Mountain	USA	362″ 9,2 m	12. December	3100 ft 945 m	35%
39	Kitataisetsu	Japan	354″ 9,0 m	02. Februari	1804 ft 550 m	42%
40	La Hoya	Argentina	350″ 8,9 m	08. August	2214 ft 675 m	60%
41	Cerro Chapelco	Argentina	350″ 8,9 m	08. August	2376 ft 720 m	15%
42	Furano	Japan	335″ 8,5 m	02. Februari	3195 ft 974 m	20%
43	Winter Park	USA	327″ 8,3 m	02. Februari	3061 ft 933 m	58%
44	Sunshine	Canada	315″ 8,0 m	01. Januari	3513 ft 1071 m	25%
45	Kamui	Japan	314″ 8,0 m	01. Januari	1971 ft 601 m	30%
46	Big White	Canada	295″ 7,5 m	12. December	2657 ft 810 m	26%
47	Red Mountain	Canada	295″ 7,5 m	02. Februari	2913 ft 888 m	45%
48	Chamonix	France	276″ 7,0 m	02. Februari	9209 ft 2807 m	13%
49	St. Anton	Austria	275″ 7,0 m	02. Februari	4944 ft 1507 m	22%
50	Silver Star	Canada	274″ 6,9 m	12. December	2500 ft 762 m	30%

How This Top Ski Resorts In The World List Was Compiled

By Rylan Schoen

Geographically, North-West America and Japan are ideal for continuous fresh snow dumps. For top ski resorts in the world that have historic snow data available, it has been collected and analyzed by various meteorological institutes. We have used and especially compared many sources and thank these especially:

• http://www.bestsnow.net
• http://www.weather.com
• http://www.powderhounds.com
• http://www.currentresults.com
• http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/ncdc.html
• http://nsidc.org
• http://www.weatherbase.com/
• http://www.wunderground.com/
• http://www.j2ski.com/
• http://www.ski-adventure-guide.com top ski resorts
• Arnie Wilson’s Top Ski Resorts of the world (2001)
• http://www.onthesnow.com

The numbers we used are from above sites.. Since we noticed it’s hard to find the right data presented in an easy and understandable way, we made this list for you. We think it’s vital if you love powder, it’s your bucket list. Coming weeks, expect a review of each of the 50 resorts on the list with pros, cons, up to date weather, webcam, vertical and difficulty data.

This top ski resorts in the world list was a lot of work so please share the love and credit us!

EDIT: 20120101 Table header now clickable to sort by preferred colomn. Added best powder month, vertical drop and percentage of advanced/expert runs. Suggestions to make this list even better? @aqpowderski!