World's Deepest 2026 Snowpack Reaches 6m / 20 Feet
World's Deepest 2026 Snowpack Reaches 6m / 20 Feet
Published : 31-Jan-2026 08:04
The deepest reported snowpack in the world this winter has hit 6m (nearly 20 feet) for the first time. Seki Onsen, a little Japanese area famous for its huge average annual snowfall total of 16.5m, reached the stat on Saturday, 31st January.
With two ski lifts and located near Myoko City in Niigata prefecture, Seki Onsen has been reporting heavy snowfall over the past month, peaking at a metre in 24 hours earlier this week. Japan has been reporting so much snowfall, as well as bitterly cold temperatures, that some skiers have found the off piste terrain too deeply buried to be easily skiable.
Although ski areas across the country have been reporting big snowfalls, it's been northern Honshu, the country's main island, which has seen the most January snowfall, overtaking the usually snowier Hokkaido, home to Japan's best known resort Niseko, to the north. It though still has a 3.5m base, one of the deepest stats for a world's leading resort this month this season, and all terrain open.
In Europe, Switzerland's Glacier 3000 is claiming the deepest snowpack at 4.8m; in North America its Washington state's Mt Baker, across the Pacific from Seki Onsen, which claims the world record for the most snowfall in a season back in winter 1999/20 at 29m, that's currently on 2.9m.
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