Japan · Hokkaido

Sarufutsu Sonei Ski Area

猿払村役場 猿払村営スキー場
24 / 100 Powder Score
No Snow Weather Clear
Official site

Not open yet for 2026/27. We have not yet found an official opening date. The snowfall below is a model figure and does not mean the slopes are skiable.

Base depth
0cm
Snow 48h
5cm
Next 72h
0cm

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 →

Snow 24h
3 cm
Next 24h
0 cm
Temperature
0°C
Max wind
19 km/h
Elevation
23–61 m
Across
0.5 km

This season so far (1 Nov to 9 Nov): 14 cm. The average for these dates is under 10 cm, so we do not give a percentage yet. The average is over twelve winters on the same weather model. Across Japan →

Updated: 10 Nov 2026, 12:15

7-day outlook

Date Weather Snow (cm) Low / high (°C) Wind (km/h)
Tue 10 Nov Snow showers 2 −3 to 1 25
Wed 11 Nov Cloudy 0 −3 to 4 16
Thu 12 Nov Drizzle 0 4 to 10 26
Fri 13 Nov Cloudy 0 3 to 9 23
Sat 14 Nov Cloudy 0 3 to 7 23
Sun 15 Nov Drizzle 0 3 to 5 24
Mon 16 Nov Snow showers 1 0 to 5 33

Score breakdown

Fresh (48h) 12/40
Forecast (24h) 0/25
Snow quality 4/20
Wind 8/10
Base 0/5

The five add up to the 100-point Powder Score: more fresh snow, more on the way and colder air all push it up. How we measure

This village-run slope is in Onishibetsu, the same district as the village office, in Sarufutsu on the Sea of Okhotsk coast. It opened at the end of 1989 with a lift, floodlights for night skiing and a snow groomer. Sources: vill.sarufutsu.hokkaido.jp (sources read 11 Oct 2026; an AI draft the site operator has not yet checked)

Weather models read low in the mountains: a Japan Meteorological Agency station 5 km away measured 511 cm a winter over the last three seasons, against 281 cm from the model.

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
1
Run length
0.3km
Lifts
1
Vertical
38m
Top 61 m · base 23 m

Run map

Easy 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 map0.3 km
Steepest pitch12°measured over at least 30 m
Average gradient of the runs6.9°

Which way the slopes face

North 2%
East 0%
South 0%
West 98%

Only 2% of the vertical on the runs descends to the north or east. The most common direction is west (98%).

By difficulty

Easy 1 · 0.3 km

Lift types

  • T-bar1

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.

Live cameras

This ski area does not put a camera on its own slopes. The nearest live view is the road below.

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

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
215cm
per season
Worst of 12 winters
137cm
The middle winter of the 12: 223 cm. The best: 323 cm.
World rank
995
of 3,069 worldwide
Rank in country
243
of 397 in Japan
Elevation rank
394
Highest to lowest, of 397 in Japan. The centre point sits at 38 m, 728 m below the national median.
Quality rank
195
of 397 in Japan
Temp when snowing
−3.3°C
Japanese median: −3.6°C
Rain days
7%
Japanese median: 16%
Days over 5 cm
12%
Japanese median: 15%
Wind when snowing
31km/h
Average daily peak, 10 m above ground across a model grid cell; not the wind on ridges or lift tops
Dryness 38
Frequency 35
Freedom from rain 82
Calm when snowing (model grid) 82

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.

Ski areaDistanceSeasonal snowfallWorld rank
Wakkanaishi Komadori Ski Area33.0 km224 cm924
Toyotomi Ski Area35.0 km191 cm1235
Higashigaoka Ski Area40.0 km191 cm1235
Nakatonbestucho Eikotobuki41.0 km221 cm945

Compare side by side with Wakkanaishi Komadori Ski Area and Toyotomi Ski Area →

When it falls, and how winters differ

Month by month

The most snow falls in December. March brings 62% of January’s snowfall. That is a gentler fall than the median for ski areas in Japan (52%). In amount, March brings 40 cm, about the same as the median of 46 cm.

65cm
Dec
65cm
Jan
46cm
Feb
40cm
Mar
Average snowfall by month, last 12 winters

Winter by winter

Across the 12 winters measured, the average is 215 cm, and 6 of them fell short of it. The leanest was 2016/17 with 137 cm; the biggest was 2024/25 with 323 cm (2.4 times as much). For 63% of the 397 ski areas in Japan the leanest winter was 2015/16; here it was a different one.

200
158
137
256
164
157
246
258
167
267
323
252
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.

How these figures are made

What was actually measured nearby

Total snowfall from December to March recorded at the 浜鬼志別 weather station — 5 km from this ski area, 26 m below its mid-slope.

Three-season average511 cm
2023/24521 cm
2024/25519 cm
2025/26493 cm

The figure calculated on this page is 281 cm.

A weather station is not a ski slope. We picked one at a similar elevation, but it stands in a valley or a village. More snow falls on the mountain above it. We have not tried to guess how much more.

Source: Japan Meteorological Agency historical records

Worth seeing nearby

Within 20 km in a straight line, nearest first. Some lie over a pass that is closed in winter.

Show the list
PlaceTypeDistance
Roadside station Sarufutsu park道の駅さるふつ公園Park5.7 km
Soya Hills宗谷丘陵Mountain11.8 km
カムイト沼Nature13.8 km

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.

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 on the map

2 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.

Nearest: 5.6 km

Show the nearest places

Nearest first

Accommodation data: OpenStreetMap

Other booking sites: Booking.com ↗ · Agoda ↗ · Rakuten Travelad ↗

“ad” marks links that pay us a commission if you book. Links without it are not affiliated.

Guides covering Hokkaido

← Ski areas in Hokkaido Compare with other ski areas →