There are some areas in Alaska and Canada which do typically collect greater seasonal snowdepths than any location in the Cascades, including portions of the Chugach Mtns in south-central AK, the Saint Elias Mtns along the AK/YT/BC border, and the Coast Mtns in BC (especially near Mt Waddington). A few favored high-elevation areas of the WA Olympic Mtns also fit this category, as do (perhaps surprisingly) some locations in the Klamath Mtns of northwest CA. However, what all of these areas have in common is that there are NO measurement sites in the remote high-elevation, high-snowfall areas. The few measurement sites that exist are located nearer to civilization and at modest elevations. Currently, the greatest snowdepth at any Canadian measurement site is about 124" at the 4400 ft Upper Squamish River telemetry site near Mt Cayley, just west of Whistler. In Alaska, the most at any SNOTEL site now is barely 60", while the 2750 ft upper station at Alyeska Ski Resort is reporting 114".<br><br>In contrast, the Cascade Range does have a few measurement sites located in extremely high snowfall areas, at subalpine elevations just below treeline. The greatest average snowdepths of any measurement sites in the world are right here in our own backyard: the snow course at 5400 ft Jasper Pass (in the N Cascades east of Mt Baker) has an April 1 average of 198", followed closely by the 5300 ft Cayuse/Chinook Pass snow course with 197". Unfortunately, budget cuts (and bureaucratic shortsightedness) have discontinued data collection at both of these exceptional sites. The NWAC telemetry site at Chinook Pass is located about 250 ft higher than the NRCS snow course, but data over the 17 year period of record is too spotty to calculate any averages. I would guesstimate an average April 1 snowdepth of just over 200". For comparison, the highest average snowdepth of any site in Canada is 162" at the Orchid Lake snow course (south of Mt Garibaldi), while the most for any snow course or SNOTEL site in Alaska is a mere 107". Throughout the rest of the world, only a few areas have snowfalls comparable to the Pacific coastal ranges of North America: the southern Andes of Chile, the west side of the Southern Alps in NZ, and small parts of the western coast of Japan. As far as I know, none of these areas have measurement sites in any extremely high snowfall locations. I'd appreciate it if anyone has info about measurement sites in these areas.<br><br>So Chinook Pass is probably the first site in the world to reach 200" of snowdepth this season. By the way, Chinook Pass has already hit 220" as of this morning, with over 24" of new snow during the past 20 hours, and 2-3 more feet of snow are forecast over the next 2 days!!!<br><br>If you're interested, I have lots of Cascade snow info online at
www.skimountaineer.com/CascadeSki/CascadeSnow.html
, see the bottom of the page for a comparison of snowdepth at numerous sites. See also
www.skimountaineer.com/CascadeSki/CascadeSnowSeasons.html
for more discussion about annual snowdepth leaders.<br>
