Akita Hachimantai Ski Area is a ski area in Akita, Japan, on slopes between roughly 986 and 1,202 m. Its mapped area is about 1.3 km across, with 2 marked runs and 1 lift (about 2.1 km of piste in all).
Over the last twelve winters the ERA5 weather model gives it 437 cm of snowfall a season, 61st of the 397 ski areas we measure in Japan. It swings a lot from year to year: the biggest winter, 2017/18 (613 cm), brought more than twice as much as the leanest, 2015/16 (229 cm). January is usually the snowiest month, with about 131 cm. Snowfall days are cold, averaging −6.4 °C at mid-mountain, and its snow-quality score ranks 13th of 397 in Japan.
The nearest city of any size is Morioka, about 40 km away.
Snow depth and the seven-day outlook appear here once snow starts to fall. Until then, the long-run record comes first.
Elevation range is estimated by sampling points across the ski area.
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. Ski areas a few kilometres apart share a weather grid cell and can return the same figure.
| Ski area | Distance | Seasonal snowfall | World rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Appi Kogen | 12 km | 377 cm | 211 |
| Hachimantai Resort Shimokura Ski area | 15 km | 329 cm | 360 |
| Hachimantai Resort Panorama Ski Are | 18 km | 329 cm | 360 |
| Amihari Onsen Ski Resort | 20 km | 358 cm | 262 |
| Tayama Ski Area (Hachimantai City) | 21 km | 265 cm | 643 |
When it falls, and how winters differ
Month by month
Month by month, the most snow falls in January. March brings 60% of January’s snowfall. That is a gentler fall than the median for ski areas in Japan (52%). In amount, March brings 79 cm, more than the median of 46 cm.
Winter by winter
Across the 12 winters measured, the average is 437 cm, and 5 of them fell short of it. The leanest was 2015/16 with 229 cm; the biggest was 2017/18 with 613 cm (2.7 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.
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
The shape of the mountain
Which way the slopes face
Only 2% of the vertical on the runs descends to the north or east. More of the terrain faces the sun.
By difficulty
Lift types
- Gondola1
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.
Appi and Hachimantai webcams & snow report — all 11 ski areas →
Hot springs nearby, as analysed
13 hot spring sources with published analyses lie within 5 km of this ski area, nearest first (the hottest is 99 °C).
| Source | Distance | Temperature | pH | Type | Analysed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 後生掛紺屋地獄 | 0.7 km | 96.5℃ hot | 2 acidic | sulphur, iron, acidic | — |
| 大沼 | 0.9 km | 54℃ hot | 7 neutral | simple | — |
| 蒸の湯 | 1 km | 96.9℃ hot | 4.2 mildly acidic | simple | — |
| 大深 | 1 km | 93℃ hot | 2.4 acidic | acidic | — |
| 澄川酸の湯 | 1.9 km | 83℃ hot | 2.2 acidic | acidic | — |
| トロコ | 4 km | 99℃ hot | 8.6 alkaline | sulphur | — |
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 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.
| Place | Type | Distance |
|---|---|---|
| Goshougake Onsen後生掛温泉 | Hot spring town | 0.8 km |
| Hachimantai八幡平 | Mountain | 4.5 km |
| Akita-Yakeyama秋田焼山 | Mountain | 4.5 km |
| 鏡沼 | Nature | 4.7 km |
| Tamagawa Hot Spring玉川温泉 (秋田県) | Hot spring town | 6.9 km |
| Matsukawa Geothermal Power Plant松川地熱発電所 | Landmark | 15.2 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
Where it sits relative to nearby resorts. For a piste map, see the official site.
Official piste map ↗Places to stay nearby
4 properties on Rakuten Travel lie within 3 km of this ski area, listed cheapest first.
| Property | From | Rating | Distance | Getting there |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 八幡平温泉郷 八幡平高原ホテル | ¥11,150 | 4.20 34 reviews | 0.7 km | 【東北自動車道】 松尾八幡平I.Cより県道23号線約55分／鹿角八幡平I.Cより車で約30分 |
| 源泉・秘湯の宿 ふけの湯 | ¥15,400 | 4.21 56 reviews | 0.9 km | JR田沢湖駅下車、秋北バス・羽後交通バス（直通）八幡平頂上行で約120分「 ふけの湯温泉」下車、徒歩1分 |
| 後生掛温泉 | ¥18,900 | 4.67 269 reviews | 0.8 km | 鹿角八幡平ICより車で45分 |
| 八幡平大沼茶屋湖 | — | — | 1.1 km | 鹿角花輪駅よりお車にて約３０分 |
Contains advertising · Property data by Rakuten Travel (Supported by Rakuten Developers)
Stay nearby
8 places within 12 km of the slopes. Most of them do not take online bookings — open the map for contact details.
Accommodation data: OpenStreetMap
More places to look
What we have measured at Akita Hachimantai Ski Area
- Ski and Soak in Japan: Which Ski Areas Have a Hot Spring Source Next Door, and How Hot the Water Is We matched 7,203 analysed hot spring sources to Japan's ski areas. 255 of 397 have one within 5 km, 145 of them at 42 °C or hotter, and 54 have one within 1 km. These are the ski areas that pair top snow with hot water close by, and the ones where the water is strongly acidic.
- Will There Be Snow at Japan's Winter Festivals? Three Winters, Measured Japan's winter festivals are photographed in deep snow. We measured what was actually on the ground during each one across three winters — and checked the 580-year record of a frozen lake that has now failed eight years running.
- Japan's Snow Huts Are Water Shrines. The Snowiest Towns Do Not Have Them. The kamakura is not a shelter from snow. It is a well-side shrine to a water god, roughly 450 years old, and Yokote built its huts on 6 cm of snow in 2024. We measured the snow at five towns that hold one.
Updated: 8 Oct 2026, 00:52