The task of determining the snow cover thickness with high accuracy (more than 20 cm), with high level of detail in large areas, is important when planning large business projects related to the sustainable development of the territory (ski clusters, mining enterprises, modeling river flows to regulate hydropower plants). At the same time, there is a demand to evaluate tens and hundreds of square kilometers of the territory, sometimes with a very rugged terrain and vegetation. Using generally adopted direct measurement methods acceptable for limited areas is impossible in this case. The general requirements for the desired methodology are as follows: the accuracy of determining the thickness of the snow cover shall be about 10 cm, productivity – 100 or more square kilometers per day (otherwise the object of research may change faster than its study ends), reasonable price per 1 sq.km (about 100-200 US dollars per 1 sq.km). The authors describe the use of the airborne laser scanning method for this purpose in different seasons, followed by obtaining the difference surface of the snow cover thickness. The accuracy characteristics of the technique, the features of processing and interpretation of the results are also given. In addition, a comparison of the suitability between airborne laser scanning and classical aerial survey materials (including unmanned systems) for solving this task is done.