Bear Basin Nordic Center
Bear Basin Nordic Center is a ski area in United States, at about 1,675 m. Its mapped area is about 3.2 km across.
Over the last twelve winters the ERA5 weather model gives it 301 cm of snowfall a season, 476th (tied) of 3,069 worldwide and 39th in the United States. It swings a lot from year to year: the biggest winter, 2016/17 (423 cm), brought more than twice as much as the leanest, 2014/15 (166 cm). December brings as much snow as January here (87 and 70 cm on average).
Snow depth and the seven-day outlook appear here once snow starts to fall. Until then, the long-run record comes first.
Elevation of the ski area’s centre point, taken from a digital elevation model. It is not the base-to-summit range.
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.
How much snow it gets
Measured by us across 3,069 ski areas by one identical method. These are not the resort’s own published figures.
Compared with what is nearby
Within 50 km straight line. Measured the same way, so the ranks compare directly. Ski areas a few kilometres apart share a weather grid cell and can return the same figure.
| Ski area | Distance | Seasonal snowfall | World rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Little Ski Hill | 2.1 km | 232 cm | 853 |
| Brundage Mountain | 6.3 km | 321 cm | 401 |
| McCall Activity Barn | 9.0 km | 234 cm | 832 |
| Jug Mountain Ranch Winter Trails | 16 km | 273 cm | 602 |
| Tamarack Resort | 29 km | 291 cm | 514 |
When it falls, and how winters differ
Month by month
Month by month, the most snow falls in December. March brings 90% of January’s snowfall. That is in line with the median for ski areas in the United States (85%). In amount, March brings 63 cm, more than the median of 30 cm.
Winter by winter
Across the 12 winters measured, the average is 301 cm, and 7 of them fell short of it. The leanest was 2014/15 with 166 cm; the biggest was 2016/17 with 423 cm (2.5 times as much). For 33% of the 534 ski areas in the United States, the leanest winter was the same 2014/15: bad winters tend to hit a whole region at once.
Snowfall each winter (December–March total). The dashed line is the average; the numbers mark the leanest and the biggest winter.
Map
Where it sits relative to nearby resorts. For a piste map, see the official site.
More places to look
Guides covering United States
- Which Famous Ski Resorts Actually Get the Most Snow? 24 Names, Measured Niseko is 526th in the world for snowfall. Zermatt is 554th, Jackson Hole 924th, Aspen 1,201st. Measured identically across 3,069 ski areas, the names everyone books and the places it actually snows turn out to be two different lists.
- A Black Run in Colorado and a Black Run in Austria Are Not the Same Thing. The Maps Prove It. Across 2,888 ski areas: 39% of American runs are graded advanced or harder, and 9% of Austrian ones. Nobody thinks Austria is four times gentler. The grades are measuring different things.
- Niseko vs Whistler: Whistler Is the Outlier, Vail Is the Rule Whistler 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.
Updated: 8 Oct 2026, 00:52