Pacific Northwest Snowpack: A Mountain-by-Mountain Guide

The Pacific Northwest stretches from the rainforests of the Olympic Peninsula to the high desert of central Idaho, and the snowpack varies just as dramatically. Maritime storms pounding Mt. Baker produce a fundamentally different snowpack than the cold, dry air over Sun Valley. Understanding these differences helps you pick the right mountain for the conditions you want, whether that’s deep powder, reliable spring corn, or a long season that lasts into June.

This guide covers every major snowpack region tracked by Cascade Snow, using data from 24 SNOTEL stations across three states.

Washington Cascades

The Washington Cascades catch the first and heaviest Pacific moisture. Storms barrel off the ocean, hit the mountain barrier, and dump extraordinary quantities of snow. The trade-off is temperature: these are maritime mountains, and the snow is often warm and dense.

Mt. Baker & the North Cascades

Mt. Baker holds the world record for most snowfall in a single season: 1,140 inches during the 1998–99 winter. The Wells Creek SNOTEL station (#909) sits at 4,200 feet and routinely measures peak depths exceeding 150 inches. But Baker’s maritime position means rain events can erase feet of snow in hours. The snowpack here is boom-and-bust: enormous accumulations punctuated by warm atmospheric river events.

Further inland along the crest, Rainy Pass (#711) at 4,880 feet guards the North Cascades Highway (SR-20). It’s slightly more sheltered from the heaviest maritime influence, producing a more consistent base that holds better through the spring.

The Rainier Corridor

Paradise (#679) on Mt. Rainier is one of the snowiest measured locations on Earth, averaging over 640 inches of snowfall per year. The SNOTEL station at 5,150 feet has been recording since 1979, giving us over four decades of data. Peak snowpack at Paradise commonly reaches 200+ inches of depth with 80–110 inches of SWE — an enormous water reservoir that feeds multiple river systems through summer.

Nearby, Cayuse Pass (#1085) at 5,260 feet monitors conditions for Crystal Mountain ski area. Crystal sits in a sweet spot: high enough to stay cold during marginal storms, but close enough to Rainier’s moisture shadow to get hammered during large events.

The I-90 and US-2 Passes

Stampede Pass (#788) near Snoqualmie sits at just 3,850 feet, making it one of the lowest-elevation SNOTEL stations in the Cascades. Its snowpack is the most temperature-sensitive in the network — a one-degree shift in storm temperature can mean the difference between two feet of snow and two inches of rain. Despite this, Snoqualmie consistently builds a functional snowpack thanks to the sheer volume of precipitation the central Cascades receive.

Stevens Pass (#791) at 3,940 feet is similar in character but benefits from a slightly more northerly position and better cold-air drainage, which helps it retain snow during warm spells. Mission Ridge (#734) at 4,340 feet sits further east, on the drier side of the Cascades, and tends to produce lighter, drier snow when storms have enough energy to push over the crest.

Oregon Cascades

Oregon’s Cascades run from the Columbia River gorge to the California border, spanning over 300 miles. The northern peaks are wetter and warmer; the southern peaks are drier and colder at comparable elevations.

Mt. Hood

Mt. Hood’s SNOTEL station (#651) at 5,380 feet has been recording since 1979. Hood occupies a unique position in the Oregon Cascades: close enough to the Portland metro area to be the most-visited mountain in the state, and tall enough (11,249 feet) to hold snow year-round on its upper glaciers. The Timberline Lodge area typically sees peak snowpack of 100–160 inches in March, with snow quality that ranges from classic Cascade cement during warm storms to genuine powder during cold continental outbreaks.

Central Oregon: Bachelor, Hoodoo, Willamette Pass

Mt. Bachelor’s Three Creeks Meadow station (#815) at 5,680 feet benefits from a transitional climate. Sitting east of the crest, Bachelor gets less total precipitation than Hood or Rainier but receives it at colder temperatures, producing lighter and more consistent snow quality. This is why Bachelor has a reputation for better powder days than the wetter mountains to the north.

Willamette Pass (#388) and Hoodoo (#526) are lower-elevation stations that track conditions along the central Oregon Cascade passes. They’re useful indicators for highway travel and lower-mountain skiing.

Southern Oregon: Crater Lake, Thielsen, Ashland

Crater Lake (#1000) at 6,020 feet sits high enough to maintain deep snowpack well into June. The park road to Rim Village is typically buried under 10–15 feet of snow at peak, making it one of the last places in Oregon where you can ski into summer. Mt. Thielsen (#442) and Mt. Ashland (#341) round out the southern Oregon coverage, tracking the transition from Cascade maritime climate to the drier, more continental pattern of the Siskiyou Mountains.

Eastern Oregon & the Blue Mountains

Anthony Lakes (#873) at 5,730 feet in the Elkhorn Range gets surprisingly good snowfall for eastern Oregon. Cold continental air masses keep the snow dry and light. It’s a very different character than the wet Cascade snowpack — more similar to inland Idaho or Montana.

Mt. Howard (#653) at 7,840 feet in the Wallowa Mountains is the highest SNOTEL station Cascade Snow tracks in Oregon. The Wallowas, sometimes called the “Alps of Oregon,” receive heavy snowfall from both Pacific systems and occasional arctic outbreaks. Peak depth at Mt. Howard can exceed 100 inches in strong winters, and the high elevation preserves snow quality well into spring.

Idaho

Schweitzer (#738) at 6,090 feet near Sandpoint monitors the Selkirk Mountains of northern Idaho. These mountains intercept moisture from both Pacific systems and occasional moisture plumes from the inland northwest, producing reliable moderate snowfall with good cold-smoke powder days during arctic air intrusions.

Sun Valley’s Galena Summit (#490) at 8,800 feet is the highest-elevation station in the Cascade Snow network. The Sawtooth and Boulder mountains around Sun Valley receive modest total precipitation but at consistently cold temperatures. The result is some of the lightest, driest powder in the Pacific Northwest. Peak snowpack at Galena commonly reaches 60–90 inches, but the snow density is often below 20%, meaning the skiing quality punches far above those modest depth numbers.

Tracking it all in one place

Every mountain referenced in this guide has a dedicated page on Cascade Snow with daily-updated depth, SWE, snowfall totals, historical rankings, and three-zone forecasts. The snowfall comparison tool lets you check forecasted accumulation across multiple mountains side by side, using four different weather models.

For a quick visual overview, the mountain selector map shows all 24 stations on a topographic map. Click any marker to jump to that mountain’s full report.