Japan vs elsewhere · 11 Aug 2026
Niseko vs Whistler: Whistler Is the Outlier, Vail Is the RuleWhistler is the world's 29th snowiest ski area. Vail is 1,335th — and 288 Japanese ski areas get more snow than the resort that defines American skiing.
Snow 48h
0cm
Next 72h
0cm
A weather-model figure, worked out the same way for every ski area, and lower than what actually falls. Use it to compare ski areas, not against the resort’s own totals. How we measure →
- Snow 24h
- 0 cm
- Next 24h
- 0 cm
- Temperature
- 3°C
- Max wind
- 19 km/h
- Elevation
- 2,602–3,217 m
Updated: 10 Nov 2026, 12:15
We do not show a snow depth here. The weather model we use reports snow lying on the ground — it knows nothing about grooming or snowmaking, and it is not the base depth a ski area publishes. In Japan we can check our figures against 234 weather stations. Outside Japan there is nothing to check them against, so we do not print a number we have not verified. Snow report on the official site ↗
7-day outlook
| Date | Weather | Snow (cm) | Low / high (°C) | Wind (km/h) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mon 9 Nov | Cloudy | 0 | 2 to 9 | 20 |
| Tue 10 Nov | Cloudy | 0 | 0 to 6 | 16 |
| Wed 11 Nov | Clear | 0 | 1 to 8 | 16 |
| Thu 12 Nov | Cloudy | 0 | 3 to 11 | 5 |
| Fri 13 Nov | Cloudy | 0 | 0 to 7 | 8 |
| Sat 14 Nov | Snow showers | 11 | −6 to 2 | 11 |
| Sun 15 Nov | Cloudy | 0 | −9 to −1 | 8 |
Score breakdown
Fresh (48h) 0/40
Forecast (24h) 0/25
Snow quality 0/20
Wind 8/10
Base 2/5
The five add up to the 100-point Powder Score: more fresh snow, more on the way and colder air all push it up. How we measure
Alta, in Utah, United States, runs from 2,602 m at the base to 3,217 m at the top. The map shows 130 marked runs and 11 lifts (about 72 km of piste in all).
Over the last twelve winters the ERA5 weather model gives it 267 cm of snowfall a season, 633rd (tied) of 3,069 worldwide and 50th in the United States. It swings a lot from year to year: the biggest winter, 2022/23 (492 cm), brought more than 5 times as much as the leanest, 2014/15 (87 cm). March still brings 70 cm on average, close to January, its snowiest month.
Runs and lifts
Counted from the runs and lifts drawn on OpenStreetMap, within the boundary of the ski area. These are not the resort’s own published figures.
Marked runs
130
Run length
72km
Lifts
11
Vertical
614m
Top 3,217 m · base 2,602 m
Run map
EasyIntermediateAdvancedExpertOther Lift
Slope shape, difficulty and lift types
The shape of the mountain
Longest run on the map3.9 km
Steepest pitch42°measured over at least 30 m
Average gradient of the runs14.3°
Which way the slopes face
North 54%
East 7%
South 3%
West 36%
61% of the vertical on the runs descends to the north or east; plenty of the terrain faces the sun as well, so the lean is modest.
By difficulty
Easy 11 · 9.7 km
Intermediate 34 · 19.6 km
Advanced 73 · 36.9 km
Expert 1 · 0.3 km
Other 11 · 5.1 km
Lift types
- Chairlift7
- Rope tow2
- Magic carpet2
See past trail maps on Skimap.org ↗
Source: OpenSkiMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL 1.0). How finely ski areas are drawn varies by region, so treat the counts as indicative. Vertical is the difference between the highest and lowest points of the mapped runs and lifts.
Live cameras
This ski area does not put a camera on its own slopes. What follows are nearby cameras, not the pistes themselves.
Footage remains the copyright of each operator. JAPANSNOWLINE neither stores nor redistributes it.
Some cameras here are provided by Windy.com. Footage plays in Windy’s own player; we do not store it. Windy.com
How much snow it gets
Modelled from weather data the same way at all 3,069 ski areas we cover. These are not the resort’s own published figures.
Seasonal snowfall
267cm
per season
Worst of 12 winters
87cm
The middle winter of the 12: 233 cm. The best: 492 cm.
World rank
633
of 3,069 worldwide
Rank in country
50
of 534 in United States
Elevation rank
37
Highest to lowest, of 534 in United States. The centre point sits at 2,800 m, 2,272 m above the national median.
Compared with what is nearby
Within 50 km in a straight line. Ski areas in the same weather-model cell (about 30 km across) get the same figure.
| Ski area | Distance | Seasonal snowfall | World rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Snowbird | 2.5 km | 267 cmsame grid cell | 633 |
| Solitude Mountain Resort | 4.0 km | 274 cm | 598 |
| Brighton Resort | 4.9 km | 274 cm | 598 |
| Park City Mountain Resort | 11.0 km | 227 cm | 899 |
| Deer Valley Resort | 13.0 km | 219 cm | 966 |
When it falls, and how winters differ
Month by month
The most snow falls in January. March brings 99% of January’s snowfall. That is a gentler fall than the median for ski areas in the United States (85%). In amount, March brings 70 cm, more than the median of 30 cm.
59cmDec
71cmJan
67cmFeb
70cmMar
Winter by winter
Across the 12 winters measured, the average is 267 cm, and 7 of them fell short of it. The leanest was 2014/15 with 87 cm; the biggest was 2022/23 with 492 cm (5.7 times as much). For 33% of the 534 ski areas in the United States the leanest winter was 2015/16; here it was a different one.
87
170
375
226
321
236
197
208
492
356
309
230
14/1515/1616/1717/1818/1919/2020/2121/2222/2323/2424/2525/26
Snowfall each winter (December–March total). The dashed line is the average; the numbers mark the leanest and the biggest winter.
Other booking sites: Booking.com ↗ · Agoda ↗
Guides that cover Alta
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