Japan · Niigata

Suhara Ski Area

須原スキー場

Off season

No snow yet. 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

538cm

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: 202–549 m
Across: 1.9 km

The main intermediate run, the Giant course, follows a ridge and carries on down into the Romance slope. The hooded quad chairlift to the summit can also be ridden downhill free of charge. The summit holds the observatory dome of Hoshi no Ie, Uonuma City's natural science museum. Sources: suhara-ski.com, city.uonuma.lg.jp (sources read 11 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

538cm

per season

Worst of 12 winters

322cm

The middle winter of the 12: 571 cm. The best: 676 cm.

World rank

of 3,069 worldwide

Rank in country

of 397 in Japan

Elevation rank

294

Highest to lowest, of 397 in Japan. The centre point sits at 375 m, 391 m below the national median.

Quality rank

250

of 397 in Japan

Temp when snowing

−0.7°C

Japanese median: −3.6°C

Rain days

42%

Japanese median: 16%

Days over 5 cm

34%

Japanese median: 15%

Wind when snowing

17km/h

Average daily peak, 10 m above ground across a model grid cell; not the wind on ridges or lift tops

Dryness 19

Frequency 97

Freedom from rain 35

Calm when snowing (model grid) 98

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 area	Distance	Seasonal snowfall	World rank
Yakushi Ski Area	11.0 km	532 cm	72
Koshi Kogen Ski Area	11.0 km	433 cm	127
Koide Ski Area	13.0 km	370 cm	226
Nagaoka City Ski Area	14.0 km	320 cm	404
Hakkai Sanroku Ski Area	19.0 km	451 cm	107

Compare side by side with Yakushi Ski Area and Koshi Kogen Ski Area →

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

Run length

5.6km

Lifts

Vertical

347m

Top 549 m · base 202 m

Run map

EasyIntermediateAdvanced Lift

North is up. Runs are coloured by difficulty; black lines are lifts.

Slope shape, difficulty and lift types

The shape of the mountain

Longest run on the map1.0 km

Steepest pitch29°measured over at least 30 m

Average gradient of the runs12.8°

Which way the slopes face

North 16%

East 35%

South 48%

West 2%

51% of the vertical on the runs descends to the north or east; plenty of the terrain faces the sun as well, so the lean is modest.

By difficulty

Easy 4 · 2 km

Intermediate 4 · 2.8 km

Advanced 3 · 0.9 km

Lift types

Chairlift4

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

The most snow falls in January. March brings 31% 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 60 cm, more than the median of 46 cm.

145cm

Dec

195cm

Jan

139cm

Feb

60cm

Mar

Average snowfall by month, last 12 winters

Winter by winter

Across the 12 winters measured, the average is 538 cm, and 5 of them fell short of it. The leanest was 2019/20 with 322 cm; the biggest was 2014/15 with 676 cm (2.1 times as much). For 63% of the 397 ski areas in Japan the leanest winter was 2015/16; here it was a different one.

676

366

632

611

463

322

590

620

483

461

675

551

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

Live cameras

This ski area does not put a camera on its own slopes. What follows are nearby cameras, not the pistes themselves.

Roads nearby国道252号 ↗From the resort: 1.6 kmOperated by: 新潟県新潟県土木部

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

Videos

Videos remain the copyright of whoever filmed them. JAPANSNOWLINE stores no video and plays everything through the standard YouTube player.

Official YouTube channel

More than we show here.

What was actually measured nearby

Total snowfall from December to March recorded at the 守門 weather station — 3.5 km from this ski area, 104 m below its mid-slope.

Three-season average	894 cm
2023/24	675 cm
2024/25	1116 cm
2025/26	891 cm

The figure calculated on this page is 562 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

Hot springs nearby, as analysed

1 hot spring sources with published analyses lie within 5 km of this ski area, nearest first (the hottest is 21.2 °C).

Show the sources

Source	Distance	Temperature	pH
守門鉱泉白石鉱泉	3.9 km	21.2℃ cold	7.5 mildly alkaline

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

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

Show the list

Place	Type	Distance
Meguro Residence目黒邸	Landmark	1 km
Niigata Prefectural Road Route 50新潟県道50号小出奥只見線	Landmark	11.7 km
湯之谷温泉郷	Hot spring town	14.3 km
Nagaoka Station長岡駅	Landmark	19 km
Nagaoka Castle長岡城	Historic site	19.1 km
City Hall Plaza Ao-re Nagaoka長岡市シティホールプラザアオーレ長岡	Landmark	19.1 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 ↗

Getting there

By car: about 30 minutes from Uonuma IC or Horinouchi IC (Kan-Etsu Expressway)

Source: suhara-ski.com · checked 1 Nov 2026. Shuttle days and times change with the season; check the official site before you go.

Get directions ↗ Open in Google Maps ↗

Going with children

Kids’ area: Yes (details in Japanese on the official site)
Childcare: Not checked
Parking: Yes (details in Japanese on the official site)
Rental: Yes (details in Japanese on the official site)

Checked on the official site (21 Oct 2026) · Source. “Not checked” means we have not looked yet. Compare with other ski areas →

Places to stay nearbyPR

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

5 properties on Rakuten Travel lie within about 3 km of this ski area. The table shows the nearest 5 with a listed price.

Property (links to Rakuten Travel)	Lowest listed (per person, tax incl.)	Rating	Distance	Getting there
民宿治兵衛	¥5,500	4.50／5 24 reviews	1.3 km	小出インターより25分。上越新幹線浦佐駅より35分。只見線越後須原駅より徒歩3分
新潟県ホテル仕様の民泊施設ドリーム/民泊	¥5,800	3.00／5 7 reviews	1.5 km	越後須原駅より徒歩にて約2分

Pick dates and guests to check rooms on Rakuten Travel

Prices are the lowest Rakuten Travel lists; a property name, or “Pick dates and guests” above, shows prices and rooms for your dates.

Contains advertising. Property names and Rakuten Travel’s booking pages are in Japanese. · Property data by Rakuten Travel (Supported by Rakuten Developers)

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 Niigata

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