The road to Thompson Pass, the snowiest place in Alaska
Thompson Pass is a mountain pass at an elevation of 841m (2,759ft) above the sea level, located in Valdez–Cordova Census Area, in the state of Alaska, United States.
How long is the road to Thompson Pass?
The road to the summit is called Richardson Highway. It’s a good, 2-lane paved highway. The pass road is 132km (82.5 miles) long, running north-southwest from Tonsina to Valdez. It was totally paved in 1955.
Is the road to Thompson Pass open?
The pass is located in the heart of the Chugach Mountain Range, northeast of Valdez. Access to the pass is typically open all year round, with the occasional closure in winters due to dangerous weather conditions. The pass can be nerve racking to drive through in the right conditions at anytime of year. The zone around the pass is the snowiest place in Alaska, recording 551.5 inches (1,401 cm) of snow per year on average. The winter of 1952–1953 saw 974.5″ of snow fall on the summit-the most ever recorded in one season at one location in Alaska.