Japan · Iwate

Hachimantai Resort Shimokura Ski area

八幡平リゾート
Off season
Official site

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.

Typical snowfall
329cm
Elevation
604–1,123 m
Across
2.5 km

Hachimantai Resort Shimokura Ski area is a ski area in Iwate. Compared with Hachimantai Resort Panorama Ski Are, the nearest ski area (3.2 km), it gets about the same snow in a season, and its snowfall days are 0.8°C colder.

Below are links to its official live camera.

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.

Seasonal snowfall
329cm
per season
Worst of 12 winters
167cm
A typical winter: 334 cm. The best: 429 cm.
World rank
360
of 3,069 worldwide
Rank in country
128
of 397 in Japan
Elevation rank
196
Highest to lowest, of 397 in Japan. The centre point sits at 772 m, 6 m above the national median.
Quality rank
46
of 397 in Japan
Temp when snowing
−5.3°C
Japanese median: −3.5°C
Rain days
10%
Japanese median: 16%
Days over 5 cm
20%
Japanese median: 15%
Wind when snowing
16km/h
Dryness 52
Frequency 56
Freedom from rain 74
Calm when snowing 99

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 areaDistanceSeasonal snowfallWorld rank
Hachimantai Resort Panorama Ski Are3.2 km329 cmsame grid cell360
Amihari Onsen Ski Resort7.7 km358 cm262
Iwate Kogen Snow Park8.5 km332 cm345
Appi Kogen8.9 km377 cm211
Shizukuishi Ski Resort13.0 km358 cm262

Compare side by side with Hachimantai Resort Panorama Ski Are and Amihari Onsen Ski Resort →

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.

Marked runs
10
Run length
7.6km
Lifts
3
Vertical
519m
Top 1,123 m · base 604 m

Run map

EasyIntermediateAdvanced Lift
North is up. Runs are coloured by difficulty; black lines are lifts.
Run map

Drag to move around, and use + and − to zoom. On a phone, swipe to move and pinch to zoom in further.

Slope shape, difficulty and lift types

The shape of the mountain

Longest run on the map2.1 km
Steepest pitch31°measured over at least 30 m
Average gradient of the runs11.8°

Which way the slopes face

North 19%
East 71%
South 10%
West 0%

90% 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

Easy 3 · 3.5 km
Intermediate 4 · 2.6 km
Advanced 3 · 1.5 km

Lift types

  • Chairlift3

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 January. March brings 69% of January’s snowfall. That is a gentler fall than the median for ski areas in Japan (52%). In amount, March brings 66 cm, more than the median of 46 cm.

95cm
Dec
96cm
Jan
72cm
Feb
66cm
Mar
Average snowfall by month, last 12 winters

Winter by winter

Across the 12 winters measured, the average is 329 cm, and 5 of them fell short of it. The leanest was 2015/16 with 167 cm; the biggest was 2017/18 with 429 cm (2.6 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.

228
167
299
429
329
385
338
377
328
371
321
379
14/1515/1616/1717/1818/1919/2020/2121/2222/2323/2424/2525/26

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

Footage remains the copyright of each operator. JAPANSNOWLINE neither stores nor redistributes it.

Official YouTube channel

More than we show here.

Hot springs nearby, as analysed

3 hot spring sources with published analyses lie within 5 km of this ski area, nearest first (the hottest is 44.4 °C).

Show the sources
SourceDistanceTemperaturepHTypeAnalysed
松川松川荘の湯3.3 km42℃ hot3.9 mildly acidicsulphur—
赤川(松川)4.3 km31.6℃ lukewarm3.9 mildly acidicsimple—
澄川(松川)4.4 km44.4℃ hot5.8 mildly acidicsimple—

These are analyses of hot spring sources, not a list of baths you can visit. They date from 1910 to 2005, many from decades ago, so today’s temperature and chemistry may differ. Names are as recorded in Japanese. Temperature and pH bands follow Japan’s standard for analysing hot springs.

Source: processed from the hot spring analysis data in the Geothermal Information Database (GRES-DB), Geological Survey of Japan, AIST

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
PlaceTypeDistance
Matsukawa Geothermal Power Plant松川地熱発電所Landmark3.5 km
Mount Iwate岩手山Mountain6.9 km
鏡沼Nature10 km
Hachimantai八幡平Mountain10.2 km
Koiwai Farm小岩井農場Nature17.4 km
Tamagawa Hot Spring玉川温泉 (秋田県)Hot spring town19.6 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.

Official piste map ↗

We have not yet checked the family facilities (kids’ area, childcare, parking, rental) on the official site. See the official site ↗

Places to stay nearbyPR

Contains advertising. Property names and Rakuten Travel’s booking pages are in Japanese.

20 properties on Rakuten Travel lie within about 3 km of this ski area. The table shows the nearest 12 with a listed price.

Press it and Rakuten Travel shows what is free on those dates across the properties listed here. Picking a property below does the same for that one property.

PropertyFrom (per person, tax incl.)RatingDistanceGetting there
リブマックスリゾート八幡平フォレスト ¥1,6702.82/5 154 reviews2.0 km盛岡駅からバスで温泉郷西口、徒歩10分
八幡平温泉郷 八幡平ハイツ ¥14,4004.31/5 775 reviews2.1 km東北自動車道松尾八幡平ICから車で15分。JR盛岡駅より岩手県北バス乗車。ハイツ前下車。6名様より送迎可(要予約)
全4室の小さな宿 Beaver ¥14,0804.80/5 90 reviews2.2 kmJR盛岡駅よりバス利用90分「温泉郷」下車徒歩7分 / 東北道 松尾八幡平ICより15分
八幡平マウンテンホテル ¥5,5004.37/5 736 reviews2.6 km東北自動車道 松尾ICより15分。盛岡駅より岩手県北バスで約80分。
八幡平ライジングサンホテル ¥7,1504.12/5 492 reviews2.6 kmJR盛岡駅から岩手県北バスで約80分「ライジングサンホテル前」下車/東北自動車道 松尾八幡平ICから車で約15分
温泉ゲストハウス やすもり(ONSEN YASUMORI) ¥3,3004.67/5 36 reviews2.7 km東北自動車道 松尾八幡平ICより15分/JR盛岡駅3番バス停より約90分『八幡平ライジングサンホテル前』下車 徒歩約2分
Asu base Yuge ¥8,880—2.7 kmJR花輪線大更駅よりお車で約20分、東北自動車道松尾八幡平ICより約15分
八幡平温泉郷 ペンション ムース ¥9,9003.83/5 91 reviews2.7 km東北自動車道松尾八幡平ICより車15分/JR盛岡駅より岩手県北バス八幡平マウンテンホテル行き
八幡平温泉郷 ペンション日の出 ¥4,9303.33/5 20 reviews2.8 kmJR花輪線 大更駅より車で20分/盛岡駅下車、八幡平温泉郷行きバス90分/東北自動車道 松尾八幡平ICより右折10分
温泉&グルメ パレット ¥9,4604.89/5 12 reviews2.8 km盛岡駅よりバスにて約80分/東北自動車道松尾八幡平ICより13分(八幡平温泉郷)
岩手山Motorlodge OLDWOOD ^ ¥19,720—3.0 km松尾八幡平駅から車で約20分
東八幡平温泉 温泉民宿ぱどっく ¥8,0004.83/5 106 reviews3.1 kmJR盛岡駅→JR花輪線大更駅→県北バスで松尾鉱山資料館→徒歩20分/JR盛岡駅→県北バスで松尾鉱山資料→徒歩20分

The button above also checks the other 8 for the same dates.

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

1 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.

Nearest: 3.2 km

Show the nearest places

Nearest first

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 Iwate

  • 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%.
  • When Japan's Ski Resorts Open for 2026/27, and Whether There Will Be Snow When They Do Japan's 2026/27 season opens on 23 October at Yeti on Mt Fuji and 31 October at Karuizawa Prince (both on machine-made snow), then on natural snow on 20 November at Sapporo Kokusai, 21 November at Sapporo Teine and Hakuba Goryu and 28 November at Niseko, Rusutsu, Kiroro and Furano. Dates checked on each resort's own site, set beside what December actually delivers: in Hokkaido about as much snow as January, in Nagano and Niigata about four-fifths.
  • Where in Japan Do You Get the Most Powder Days? Season snowfall totals do not tell you how often it snows. We counted the days that deliver 5 cm or more at all 397 Japanese ski areas. Hokkaido's median is 12 days a winter and Honshu's is 21 — and Honshu rains about three times as often.

← Ski areas in Iwate Compare with other ski areas →