No snow on the ground or falling right now. Not open yet for 2026/27. We have not yet found an official opening date. Snow depth and the seven-day outlook appear once snow is on the ground or forecast.
Typical snowfall
765cm
A weather-model figure, worked out the same way for every ski area, and lower than what actually falls. Use it to compare ski areas, not against the resort’s own totals. How we measure →
Elevation
742–1,237 m
Across
2.1 km
This season so far (1 Nov to 9 Nov): 16 cm, 89% of the average for the same dates. The average is over twelve winters on the same weather model. Across Japan →
The way in is the Okutadami Silver Line, a road built to haul materials for the Okutadami Dam, and most of it runs through dim tunnels. The ski area closes in the depths of winter, when the snow is deepest, and reopens in spring. On the Hachizaki slope, the run back to the base keeps the dam in view on the right. Sources: okutadami.co.jp, niigata-kankou.or.jp (sources read 12 Oct 2026; an AI draft the site operator has not yet checked)
How much snow it gets
Modelled from weather data the same way at all 3,069 ski areas we cover. These are not the resort’s own published figures.
Seasonal snowfall
765cm
per season
Worst of 12 winters
381cm
The middle winter of the 12: 797 cm. The best: 989 cm.
World rank
2
of 3,069 worldwide
Rank in country
1
of 397 in Japan
Elevation rank
134
Highest to lowest, of 397 in Japan. The centre point sits at 964 m, 198 m above the national median.
Quality rank
62
of 397 in Japan
Temp when snowing
−4.0°C
Japanese median: −3.6°C
Rain days
20%
Japanese median: 16%
Days over 5 cm
45%
Japanese median: 15%
Wind when snowing
19km/h
Average daily peak, 10 m above ground across a model grid cell; not the wind on ridges or lift tops
Dryness43
Frequency100
Freedom from rain48
Calm when snowing (model grid)96
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 leaves out how much snow falls (it uses temperature, frequency, rain and wind).
Compared with what is nearby
Within 50 km in a straight line. Ski areas in the same weather-model cell (about 30 km across) get the same figure.
The most snow falls in January. March brings 41% of January’s snowfall. That is a steeper fall than the median for ski areas in Japan (52%): the snow here is concentrated early in the season. For skiing, though, the amount matters more than the share: March brings 105 cm, more than the median of 46 cm.
224cmDec
259cmJan
177cmFeb
105cmMar
Average snowfall by month, last 12 winters
Winter by winter
Across the 12 winters measured, the average is 765 cm, and 4 of them fell short of it. The leanest was 2015/16 with 381 cm; the biggest was 2016/17 with 989 cm (2.6 times as much).
Chosen from the places most read about on Wikipedia, favouring those with an English article. 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.
5 places within 12 km of the slopes, as mapped on OpenStreetMap, many of them small inns and pensions. Many are not on booking sites — open the name for the website or the map.
We measured snowfall at all 3,069 ski areas on earth the same way. The top two both shut in winter because they get too much snow: a Norwegian glacier at 783 cm that opens in May, and Okutadami Maruyama in Niigata at 765 cm. 46 of the top 100 are Japanese.