Black River Basin
Black River Basin is a ski area in United States, at about 416 m. Its mapped area is about 1.9 km across, with 20 marked runs and 5 lifts (about 11 km of piste in all).
Over the last twelve winters the ERA5 weather model gives it 144 cm of snowfall a season, 1,745th (tied) of 3,069 worldwide and 227th in the United States. It swings a lot from year to year: the biggest winter, 2022/23 (200 cm), brought more than twice as much as the leanest, 2023/24 (85 cm). December brings as much snow as January here (42 and 37 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jackson Creek Summit | 2.3 km | 144 cm | 1745 |
| Big Powderhorn Mountain Resort | 7.0 km | 142 cm | 1775 |
| Active Backwoods Retreat Ski Trails | 15 km | 133 cm | 1909 |
| Whitecap Mountain | 33 km | 119 cm | 2097 |
| WinMan Nordic Ski Trails | 37 km | 103 cm | 2336 |
When it falls, and how winters differ
Month by month
Month by month, the most snow falls in December. March brings 84% of January’s snowfall. That is in line with the median for ski areas in the United States (85%). In amount, March brings 31 cm, about the same as the median of 30 cm.
Winter by winter
Across the 12 winters measured, the average is 144 cm, and 5 of them fell short of it. The leanest was 2023/24 with 85 cm; the biggest was 2022/23 with 200 cm (2.4 times as much).
Snowfall each winter (December–March total). The dashed line is the average; the numbers mark the leanest and the biggest winter.
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.
Run map
The shape of the mountain
Which way the slopes face
97% of the vertical on the runs descends to the north or east. Those slopes get the least sun, so the snow lasts longer.
By difficulty
Lift types
- Chairlift4
- Rope tow1
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.
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