No snow yet. Snow depth and the seven-day outlook appear here once snow starts to fall. Until then, the long-run record comes first.
- Elevation
- 1,637–1,684 m
- Across
- 0.6 km
Family Gelände Kirigamine Ski Area is a ski area in Nagano. Compared with Kurumayama Kogen SKYPARK, the nearest ski area (4.0 km), it gets about the same snow in a season, and its snowfall days are 0.9°C warmer.
Below are links to a road camera on the way up.
How much snow it gets
Measured by us across 3,069 ski areas by one identical method. These are not the resort’s own published figures.
The tick marks the median across every Japanese ski area we measure. All four bars run the same way — longer is better.
The quality score deliberately excludes how much snow falls — it uses temperature, frequency, rain and wind. Snowing a lot and snowing well are different things.
Compared with what is nearby
Within 50 km straight line. Measured the same way, so the ranks compare directly. The weather model works on cells about 30 km across; ski areas in the same cell get the same figure, and these numbers cannot separate them.
| Ski area | Distance | Seasonal snowfall | World rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kurumayama Kogen SKYPARK | 4.0 km | 133 cmsame grid cell | 1909 |
| Echo Valley | 4.2 km | 133 cmsame grid cell | 1909 |
| Blanche Takayama | 5.5 km | 131 cm | 1942 |
| Shirakabako Royal Hill | 6.9 km | 133 cmsame grid cell | 1909 |
| Shirakaba 2 in 1 | 8.8 km | 133 cmsame grid cell | 1909 |
Compare side by side with Kurumayama Kogen SKYPARK and Echo Valley →
Runs and lifts
Counted from the runs and lifts drawn on OpenStreetMap, within the boundary of the ski area. These are not the resort’s own published figures.
Run map
Slope shape, difficulty and lift types
The shape of the mountain
Which way the slopes face
91% of the vertical on the runs descends to the north or east. Those slopes get the least sun, so the snow lasts longer.
By difficulty
Lift types
- Chairlift2
See past trail maps on Skimap.org ↗
Source: OpenSkiMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL 1.0). How finely ski areas are drawn varies by region, so treat the counts as indicative. Vertical is the difference between the highest and lowest points of the mapped runs and lifts.
When it falls, and how winters differ
Month by month
Month by month, the most snow falls in March. March brings as much as January, or more. In amount, March brings 46 cm, about the same as the median of 46 cm.
Winter by winter
Across the 12 winters measured, the average is 133 cm, and 5 of them fell short of it. The leanest was 2015/16 with 96 cm; the biggest was 2014/15 with 182 cm (1.9 times as much). For 63% of the 397 ski areas in Japan, the leanest winter was the same 2015/16: bad winters tend to hit a whole region at once.
Snowfall each winter (December–March total). The dashed line is the average; the numbers mark the leanest and the biggest winter.
These snowfall figures are model estimates. On Japanese mountains they come to about 60% of what is actually measured (checked against 63 Japan Meteorological Agency stations). Don't set them beside a resort's own published totals; use them to compare ski areas and read the ranks. How we measure
Live cameras
This ski area does not put a camera on its own slopes. What follows are nearby cameras, not the pistes themselves.
Road conditions decide whether you can get there at all. Check before you leave.
Footage remains the copyright of each operator. JAPANSNOWLINE neither stores nor redistributes it.
Some cameras here are provided by Windy.com. Footage plays in Windy’s own player; we do not store it. Windy.com
Shirakaba and Kurumayama webcams & snow report — all 10 ski areas →
Worth seeing nearby
Places within 20 km (straight line) of this ski area, for a day off the slopes or an evening. Chosen from those most read about on Wikipedia, favouring places with an English Wikipedia article, and listed nearest first. Some lie over a mountain pass that is closed in winter.
Show the list
| Place | Type | Distance |
|---|---|---|
| Mount Kirigamine霧ヶ峰 | Mountain | 0.6 km |
| Kami-Suwa Station上諏訪駅 | Landmark | 6.9 km |
| Takashima Castle高島城 | Historic site | 7.8 km |
| Lake Suwa諏訪湖 | Nature | 8.7 km |
| Lake Megami女神湖 | Nature | 10.5 km |
| Suwa taisha諏訪大社 | Shrine | 11.6 km |
Based on the Japanese Wikipedia lists of sights in each prefecture, as compiled in travel-log-data (CC BY-SA 4.0). English names from Wikidata (CC0). The content of this section is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Map
The weather map, and where it sits among nearby ski areas.
We have not yet checked the family facilities (kids’ area, childcare, parking, rental) on the official site.
Places to stay nearbyPR
Contains advertising. Property names and Rakuten Travel’s booking pages are in Japanese.
3 properties on Rakuten Travel lie within about 3 km of this ski area. The table shows the nearest 3 with a listed price.
| Property | Lowest listed (per person, tax incl.) | Rating | Distance | Getting there |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 双葉屋 | ¥9,210 | — | 0.3 km | 中央道諏訪ICより車で30分 |
| ヒュッテ霧ヶ峰 | ¥7,800 | 3.75／5 378 reviews | 0.5 km | JR中央東線上諏訪駅より霧ケ峰方面バス30分強清水下車/中央道諏訪ICより30分 |
Prices are the lowest Rakuten Travel lists, not the price for your dates. The button above, or a property name, shows prices for the dates you pick.
Contains advertising. Property names and Rakuten Travel’s booking pages are in Japanese. · Property data by Rakuten Travel (Supported by Rakuten Developers)
Places to stay on the map
22 places within 12 km of the slopes, as mapped on OpenStreetMap, including small inns and pensions that are on no booking site. Most of them do not take online bookings — open the name for the website or the map.
Accommodation data: OpenStreetMap
More places to look
“ad” marks links that pay us a commission if you book. Links without it are not affiliated.
Guides covering Nagano
- A Historic El Niño Is Forecast. Here Is What the Last Big One Did to Japan's Snow. NOAA gives a very strong El Niño better than a 90% chance this winter. We measured every Japanese ski area across the last 12 winters: El Niño winters ran 88% of normal, and the strongest of the twelve left Japan at 63%. But Hakuba held 92% of its average that winter while Niseko fell to 57%.
- Which Famous Ski Resorts Actually Get the Most Snow? 24 Names, Measured Niseko is 526th in the world for snowfall. Zermatt is 554th, Jackson Hole 924th, Aspen 1,201st. Measured identically across 3,069 ski areas, the names everyone books and the places it actually snows turn out to be two different lists.
- How Japan's Early-Bird Lift Tickets Work: At Hakuba Happo-One, Eight of the Nine Need a Japanese ID Card Hakuba Happo-One opened early-bird sales at 10:00 on 1 October. A day costs ¥6,400 against ¥9,800 at the window, 35% off. But every ticket on the list except one needs a My Number Card and a Japanese phone app. A visitor from abroad can buy exactly one of them, at 15% off.