Mammoth Mountain Ski Area boasts 'most snow in the world'

As powerful winter storms continue to churn across Europe and North America, it's becoming increasingly clear that this will go down as one of the most incredible skiing and snowboarding seasons ever.

Many resorts are boasting more pre-January snow than ever and some are approaching totals that surpass their season averages -- with three months left in the season.

But only one resort can claim supremacy when it comes to how much powder blankets its slopes: Mammoth Mountain Ski Area, which boasts that it has "the most snow in the world."

The claim is backed by the Skiinfo.com, which keeps track of base depths at resorts around the world. Mammoth, which is nestled on California's eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada mountains, is No. 1 with a base depth of 559 centimeters, or 221 inches. That's 18-plus feet.

Mammoth is followed by Mt. Washington Alpine Resort (518 cm) in British Columbia, and Ghiacciaio Presena-Adamello (450 cm) in Italy. Rounding out the top five, as of Wednesday, are Alpine Meadows (450 cm) and Sugar Bowl (356 cm) in the Lake Tahoe area, in the northern Sierra Nevada range.

Actual snowfall for the season at Mammoth, which picked up three feet Tuesday into Wednesday, is 290 inches.

"As far back as we've kept records, we've never had this much snow this early," said Joani Lynch, spokeswoman for the sprawling resort. "That's really the thing: that this much snow has fallen in the month of December."

Mammoth, which has been keeping records since 1969-70,  averages 400 inches per season. Its biggest snowfall season was in 2005-06, when it received 578 inches and remained open into July.

It's well on pace to surpass that this season. The reason is simply because of a storm track that has delivered the most powerful storms directly into the region from the Pacific, rather than from the north over the Lake Tahoe area.

"The kind of storms that produce a lot of snow are storms with a strong westerly flow off the Pacific," said Ken Clark, a senior meteorologist with Accuweather.com. "As they hit the Sierra and begin to rise they ring out as much moisture as possible."

Clark said that Mammoth benefitted immensely from a storm in Mid-December that stalled over the region for several days, dropping nearly 15 feet of snow. In a two-day period alone, on Dec. 17-18, Mammoth received more than six feet of fresh powder.

"Those storms were more aimed at the southern Sierra than the central Sierra and that's where they got the 15 feet of snow," Clark said. "Lake Tahoe did well also, don't get me wrong, but they didn't get anywhere near 15 feet.

-- Pete Thomas

Mammoth images are courtesy of Peter Morning

-- Editor's note: A similar post appears on the GrindTv.com snow and outdoors blogs

Twitter: @Pete_Thomas

Comments

[Joseph A. Obrien]

Despite the lack of snow this ski season, Mammoth Mountain was still able to guarantee snow and even made an offer that for every day that goes by in which the resort doesn’t receive 24 inches of new snowfall, they’ll extend the length of the pass for an additional day:http://www.consumertraveler.com/today/what-were-reading-mammoth-mountain-offers-guaranteed-snow-wing-cracks-found-on-a380-avoiding-delays/

I guess Mammoth Mountain still owns the title.