The Snowiest Places In The World For Winter Fun, Skiing And Travel

Snow has been making headlines recently, from very rare winter storms in places like El Paso, Texas and Georgia to an unusual road-closing Pennsylvania avalanche and near record totals in Worcester, Massachusetts.

But while all of these are extremely uncommon winter meteorological events, they would not raise an eyebrow in the Andes mountains of Chile, where the Southern Patagonian Ice Field is generally believed to be the snowiest spot on earth, according to the Washington Post. To put that in the perspective of winter sports, this part of Chile routinely receives annual snowfalls more than ten times those at world renowned U.S. ski resorts such as Sun Valley, ID and Lake Placid Winter Olympics ski venue Whiteface Mountain, NY.

Skiers and snowboarders love snow, but so do many winter travelers, who seek out fun options like ice bars, hotels and igloos, hot springs, stargazing, dogsledding and more in the colder months. If you love snow and you want a lot of it, these are the snowiest places in the world, overall and for specific types of travel. (NOTE: There is considerable variance in snow statistics, with no “official” rating bodies, and various sources often list wildly divergent numbers for the same places, so whenever possible I have chosen what I consider the most reliable source and detailed where the numbers cited come from).

The Snowiest Places In The World

Between 2001 and 2005, New York City had a spate of unusually snowy years, with an annual average in Central Park of just over 27 inches. That may not sound like much, but for the last 5-year measurement (2020-2024) the average was 16 inches, making 27 seem blustery. Years with over 40 inches in the Big Apple are exceptions to the norm, and it is not uncommon for Manhattan to see zero in a winter. In that same snowy five year span, the Southern Patagonian Ice Field, about a thousand miles south of the Chilean capital, Santiago, got an average snowfall of 2,250 inches. That is more than 165 feet. If you stood on the roof of a 15 story building you would still be under the snow.

While Chile claims the snowiest single location, it is not an unusually snowy country, given that it also has lots of sun drenched beaches, vineyards, lakes and the driest dessert on earth. Almost every ranking of the 10 snowiest countries on earth goes like this:

Japan

Canada

Russia

Norway

Finland

Sweden

U.S.

Switzerland

Austria

France

Of course, not many travelers—not even scientists—are heading to Chile’s Ice Field in winter, and most of the snowiest places in the world are not just far off the beaten tourism track, they are generally uninhabited and hard to get to. These include mountain ranges in Kazakhstan, Russia and the Himalayas, remote parts of Alaska, arctic Canada and northern Scandinavia, as well as Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula, a place most people will get closest to by playing the classic board game Risk.

However, there are some spots that get incredible amounts of snow that you can actually visit and enjoy, especially if you ski or snowboard, but also for more general tourism in cities and elsewhere. Among more tourist-friendly destinations, these are the snowiest.

The Snowiest Places In The World For Skiing & Snowboarding

Japan For The Powder

For the past several years, Japan has been red hot and growing as the hottest “new” ski and snowboard trip for Americans, and there is a pretty simple explanation: the most snow of any ski resort destination in the world (I wrote this award winning feature article for Town & Country Magazine on the topic). It doesn’t get quite as much as some heli-skiing spots in Alaska, but for “regular” resort skiing by chairlift or gondola, it blows everything else away by a wide margin. The first time I went to Hokkaido they finished the season just a few hours snowfall short of the magic thousand inch total, the mythical Holy Grail of skiing. Japan is the snowiest country on earth, even beyond the ski resorts, and according to Powder Magazine, high sections of the Japanese Alps, on the main island, get 1,200-1,500 inches annually.

For skiing, the snowiest spot is the northernmost island of Hokkaido, which hosted the Sapporo Winter Olympic Games. Hokkaido’s Aomori is usually rated the world’s snowiest city (over 100,000 people), with well over 300 inches in town, numbers that would be great at the top of most major ski resorts. In contrast, America’s most ski-centric major cities, Denver and Salt Lake, both average just over 50 inches. But villages in the mountains surrounding Aomori get twice as much and hold the record for the most snow in an inhabited area at almost 60 feet. Currently, Hokkaido is on its way to another record year and in many places, including its largest city, Sapporo (third snowiest city on earth), annual averages have already been surpassed and it is not even the end of January, with almost two full months of winter to go.

But what makes Japan so appealing to skiers and snowboarders beyond the staggering snowfall totals is how many world class resorts it has, how easy they are to get to, and all the other elements of a great ski vacation: top shelf lodging, hospitality, infrastructure and some of the very best food on the planet. While Hokkaido gets much of the media attention, the Nagano region, on the main island much closer to Tokyo, also hosted the Olympics, also gets crazy amounts of snow, but is easier to get to, and offers a deeper dive cultural experience. The plusses keep adding up: Japan not only gets the most snow in skiing, it tends to be the kind of dry, light powder skiers and snowboarders crave, quality plus quantity, and the value proposition is exceptional—far less expensive than ski vacations in the U.S.

Chugach Mountains & Alyeska Resort, Alaska

The snowiest spot in North America is high in Alaska’s Chugach range, a legendary destination for heli-skiing enthusiasts. Average snowfalls of around 1,250-inches dwarf any “regular” ski resort on the planet, even Japan’s. Among the best known operators are Chugach Powder Guides and Valdez Heli-Ski Guides. I just wrote a feature here for Forbes on trying heli-skiing for the first time.

The closest you can get with an old fashioned ski lift is the full-service Alyeska Ski Resort in Girdwood, AK at a lower elevation—but Alyeska is still the snowiest ski resort on the continent, averaging 663-inches (and over 700 last winter) according to Powder magazine. I’ve been to Alyeska, and while most people think of Alaska as far off and remote, it is actually surprisingly easy to get to, not far from Anchorage, and one of the top ski resorts in the country, though it remains a bit of a hidden gem.

Snowiest North American Ski Resorts (beyond Alaska)

When people take ski and snowboard vacations, what they usually ask first is “What about the snow?” It is so important that ski resorts are notorious for overstating their snow because they know the numbers drive visitors to come—or keeps them away. In general, the extremely detailed website BestSnow.net, run by a longtime veteran snowsports journalist, is in my opinion the most reliable, cross referencing very long term (like 30 years) trends from multiple sources, and that’s where these numbers come from. Also, they are for the resort slopes, not the city streets, as ski towns often get far less snow than the mountains towering above them, as these places tend to be rife with microclimates, and sometimes just the difference between town and the resort can be dramatic.

To put these figures in perspective, many major ski resorts that are among the nation’s most popular, famous and rightfully acclaimed, places that are generally considered to get great snow, receive less than 300 inches annually. This long list includes Park City, UT, Deer Valley, UT, Heavenly, CA, Lake Louise, AB, Sun Valley, ID, Copper Mountain, CO and all but one solitary ski resort in the Eastern United States. The snowiest ski resort in all of Europe, Austria’s Warth-Schrocken, averages a very impressive 413 inches, but that would barely crack the U.S. Top 20, and we have half a dozen resorts north of 600 inches. Basically, anything over 300 is very impressive, an elite group, so when you start doubling that, you are talking about a lot of snow.

Pacific Northwest: Washington’s Mt. Baker is widely regarded as the snowiest ski resort in the Continental U.S. with an annual average snowfall of 640-inches and is closely followed by Mt. Ranier Paradise with 623, giving the Pacific Northwest the win for ski resort snowfall.

Little Cottonwood Canyon & Big Cottonwood Canyon, UT: Utah is famous for its light, dry and prolific powder, trademarked “The Greatest Snow on Earth,” and all across the Beehive state there is great skiing. But the microclimate of Little and Big Cottonwood Canyons, just outside Salt Lake City, wins for quantity, and are also among the easiest major ski resort destinations in the country to get to. You can leave the East Coast in the morning and be skiing one of these resorts the same afternoon—unless there’s a blizzard, which is not uncommon.

Little Cottonwood is home to Alta (no snowboarding allowed) which leads the Rockies with 526-inches, and adjacent Snowbird, which gets 498. Right next door, just over the ridge, Big Cottonwood also has two ski resorts, with Brighton snagging Utah’s second place at 502 and Solitude clocking in at 471.

Rocky Mountains (Beyond Utah): Grand Targhee, WY gets overshadowed in the travel press by nearby legend Jackson Hole Mountain Resort, which is bigger and more amenitized, but Targhee wins for snow, and is tops in the Rockies outside of Utah with 465-inches. Second place for the region goes to another even lesser known resort, Lookout Pass, ID at 415.

Lake Tahoe, CA/NV: The Tahoe region has 15 ski resorts in fairly close proximity and often gets some of the biggest storms in the world, when it can snow for days at a time. This makes it arguably the densest concentration of skiing and snowfall outside Japan. But the Tahoe mountains vary greatly in precipitation and the winner is Kirkwood, the snowiest ski resort in California, with a staggering average of 456 inches. Kirkwood is known for its challenging expert terrain.

Ski The East: For the most part, ski resorts right of the Mississippi do not brag about snowfall, even in often frigid New England, but there is one extremely notable exception. Vermont’s Jay Peak is a micro-climate anomaly that consistently gets the most snow in the East and is the only U.S ski resort in the region topping the magic 300 number with an average of 320. In fact, in sluggish Western snow years like the current season, Jay often outperforms its biggest rivals in the Rockies, and for much of this ski season, you had to go to Japan to do better. This is yet other banner year for this snowfall machine, which has already surpassed 300-inches before then end of January, which is extraordinary. It appears to be the highest total in the country this year, with the usual Number One, Alaska’s Alyeska, reporting a very respectable 237 inches as of January 28.

The Snowiest Places In The World: Cities For Snow Lovers

Not everyone skis or snowboards but if you like winter wonderlands and snowy charm, you can enjoy the white season from the creature comforts of an urban environment, like great hotels with excellent restaurants and inviting spas.

The three snowiest cities on earth are all in Japan, but of these Sapporo is by far the largest with plenty of tourist attractions. Hokkaido is a large island blessed with exceptional seafood, so not surprisingly, Sapporo has amazing sushi even by Japan’s lofty standards, and Hokkaido is world famous for its scallops. The city is also famous for its eponymous beer brand, and home to the Sapporo Beer Museum, along with the exceptional Yochi Distillery, where world class Nikka whisky is produced, with a great tour.

The next two snowiest urban spots are in Canada, and the main event for winter tourism is Quebec City, in the world’s Top 5 for urban snowfall, and a city that really celebrates winter while boasting the most European feel of any city in North America, with its French Canadian charms and grand hotels, most famously the iconic Chateau Frontenac. If there is one city in the world renowned for winter and worth braving the cold for, this is it, especially during the famous annual Quebec Winter Carnival, a celebratory institution since 1894, returning for 2026 from February 6-15. It claims to be the world’s largest winter carnival, with myriad snow and ice sculptures, a giant ice palace, parades, music, food and more.

Surprisingly, three of the world’s top ten snowiest cities—and the only U.S. cities on the list—are all in New York state: Buffalo, Syracuse and Rochester. Of these Buffalo has the most touristic appeals, with its downtown Canalside, a hotbed for skating, curling, ice biking and hockey surrounded by bars and restaurants, along with many other attractions and one huge one, nearby Niagara Falls. Then there is the city’s famous signature dish, Buffalo chicken wings. Most people do not realize just how spicy Buffalo wings here can be if you order aggressively, and when it is cold outside, a wing crawl can keep you warm on the inside.

The Snowiest Places In The World: Other Top Travel Destinations

Beyond Japan, the U.S. and Canada, the snowiest countries are mostly in Scandinavia and the Alps, with plenty of charms. Greenland has polar bears, Iceland its famous hot springs lagoons, Sweden is synonymous with saunas, and another renowned winter fun destination is Finland’s extremely snowy Lapland. Like Quebec City it embraces cold tourism, with atypical pursuits such as dogsledding, reindeer-pulled sleds and watching the Northern Lights.

To combine winter charms, the outdoors and tourism, another exceptional vacation spot with a ton of snow that is a personal favorite of mine is France’s Chamonix. The birthplace of mountaineering, Chamonix is the world’s quintessential “mountain town,” and sits at the foot of Mt. Blanc, the highest peak in the Alps. Think melted cheese cuisine (raclette, fondue, tartiflette) and spa hotels with outdoor fire pits and indoor hot tubs, plus easy access to skiing, and every other winter sport imaginable. There are lots of fun options to enjoy the snowiest places in the world.