With less than two weeks to go, the 2025 Stop Sign Snow Challenge is as close as it can get.
The stop sign near Wind River Lake on Togwotee Pass is almost buried to the bottom of the red hexagon as of Wednesday. A lot of snow will be needed to bury it completely, but there could be enough snow on the horizon before the contest ends at midnight April 1.
“They’re calling for snow on Thursday through the weekend,” said Ron Hansen, owner of The Wind River Outdoor Co. in Lander, who came up with the contest. “My guess is that if it’s going to happen, it’ll happen within the next week.”
Even those who don’t enter find themselves checking the Wyoming Department of Transportation webcam through the winter to see how far up the sign the snow has piled.
It's Snow Joke
Hansen and The Wind River Outdoor Co. have sponsored the Stop Sign Snow Challenge since 2017. That was the first and only year the Togwotee Pass stop sign was completely buried in snow, that anyone noticed.
“When it gets to the end of the season, it generally takes just one big storm to bury it,” he said. “If you get the right storm at the right time, it'll bury that stop sign in pretty short order. Unfortunately, we almost reached that point for several years, but that storm never came.”
Hansen has prizes — T–shirts and engraved Yeti mugs — ready for the winners. But first, there has to be a winner.
Of the 500 people who hedged their bets for the 2025 Stop Sign Snow Challenge, there are roughly 80 still in the game. The person who guesses the date when the sign will be completely buried wins the prize.
Hansen estimates that it’ll take between 12 and 18 inches of natural snowfall to cover the stop sign before March 31. That’s a lot of snow in 12 days, but Togwotee Pass is known for packing it in when it counts.
“This is as close as it’s been in many years,” he said. “We’re right down to the end, and it’s as close as it can get.”
Settled And Unsettled
The National Weather Service (NWS) issued a Hazardous Weather Outlook on Wednesday for western and central Wyoming in anticipation of an incoming winter weather system. Snow is expected to start Thursday night and continue into Sunday, with heavier amounts in the higher elevations.
“The best probabilities we have on Togwotee Pass is 6-10 inches this weekend,” said Richard Lowe with the NWS office in Riverton. “Beyond that, there’s a lot of uncertainty.”
Winter weather systems in the extended forecast will likely spread more snow across Wyoming before the end of March. However, Lowe said it’s too early to anticipate how many inches will fall.
“There is more incoming, but looking at the systems coming in, they’ll be fast-moving, and the snow will be more minimal. With a couple of inches here and there, that could add up to 2 feet before the end of the month.”
Cowboy State Daily meteorologist Don Day said it’s more than a question of how much snow will fall. Any inches gained could be lost as the snow becomes snowpack.
“The snow doesn’t melt, but settles,” he said. “When the sun’s shining and the weather warms up, the snow gets compacted, so you lose depth. There’s a five-day break next week where it’s not going to snow when it’s going to get very spring-like, and that will compact the snow that falls over the weekend.”
Day’s assessment was that there’s a chance the stop sign could be buried before the end of March, but the best chance might be after the contest ends.
“I see plenty of opportunities to get it up to the top of the sign in April,” he said. “There’s a chance it’ll be above the sign by March 31, but I’m worried it’ll take more snow than what they’re saying because of the compaction of the snow next week.
“If it’s going to happen, I think it has to happen by the end of this weekend.”
Brainless But Binary
Participation in this year’s Stop Sign Snow Challenge was lower than in previous years. Hansen believes the innocuous challenge was “muted” in the chaos of an election year on top of everything else happening in Wyoming and the world.
“There's so much vying for people's attention anymore,” he said. “Plus, it didn’t feel like winter through most of the state. Mid-January through mid-February was pretty bleak, and the last three weeks are when the lion’s share of the snow has fallen. The weather was so nice that many people wrote the winter off.”
Nevertheless, entries for the 2026 Stop Sign Snow Challenge will open in October. Hansen describes the annual tradition as “brainless but binary,” which is why he continues it.
“In the polarizing political world we live in, this is a fun, brainless activity,” he said. “It’s buried, or it’s not. No interpretation needed."
Andrew Rossi can be reached at arossi@cowboystatedaily.com.
