Ani Yuguchinai Ski Area is a ski area in Akita, Japan, on slopes between roughly 107 and 251 m. Its mapped area is about 0.6 km across, with 1 marked run and 3 lifts (about 0.5 km of piste in all).
Over the last twelve winters the ERA5 weather model gives it 280 cm of snowfall a season, 165th of the 397 ski areas we measure in Japan. It swings a lot from year to year: the biggest winter, 2024/25 (419 cm), brought more than twice as much as the leanest, 2020/21 (195 cm). January is usually the snowiest month, with about 93 cm. Weather models read low in the mountains: a Japan Meteorological Agency station 2.3 km away measured 678 cm a winter over the last three seasons, against 339 cm from the model. Snowfall days average −1.6 °C at mid-mountain, close to freezing, so the snow is often heavy, and its snow-quality score ranks 275th of 397 in Japan.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ani Ski Resort (Mt. Moriyoshi) | 11 km | 370 cm | 226 |
| Matsumori Ski Area | 13 km | 351 cm | 281 |
| Yakushiyama Ski Area | 24 km | 160 cm | 1541 |
| Taiheizan Ski Area Opus | 29 km | 216 cm | 988 |
| Akita Hachimantai Ski Area | 36 km | 437 cm | 122 |
When it falls, and how winters differ
Month by month
Month by month, 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. In amount, March brings 38 cm, less than the median of 46 cm.
Winter by winter
Across the 12 winters measured, the average is 280 cm, and 8 of them fell short of it. The leanest was 2020/21 with 195 cm; the biggest was 2024/25 with 419 cm (2.1 times as much).
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
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
Lift types
- Rope tow3
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.
What was actually measured nearby
Total snowfall from December to March recorded at the 阿仁合 weather station — 2.3 km from this ski area, 59 m below its mid-slope.
| Three-season average | 678 cm |
| 2023/24 | 583 cm |
| 2024/25 | 754 cm |
| 2025/26 | 697 cm |
The figure calculated on this page is 339 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
3 hot spring sources with published analyses lie within 5 km of this ski area, nearest first (the hottest is 24 °C).
| Source | Distance | Temperature | pH | Type | Analysed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 阿仁合 | 1.4 km | 24℃ cold | 6.2 neutral | — | — |
| 銀山 | 2.3 km | 11.4℃ cold | 5.9 mildly acidic | — | — |
| a spring in 阿仁町露熊露熊観光協会所有源泉 | 4.6 km | 10.5℃ cold | 5.4 mildly acidic | simple | — |
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Mount Moriyoshi森吉山 | Mountain | 13.7 km |
| Bear Garden阿仁熊牧場 | Museum | 16.4 km |
| Akita Prefectural Hokuou-no-mori Park秋田県立北欧の杜公園 | Park | 17 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
1 properties on Rakuten Travel lie within 3 km of this ski area, listed cheapest first.
| Property | From | Rating | Distance | Getting there |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| クウィンス森吉 | ¥5,800 | 4.19 52 reviews | 5.8 km | 阿仁前田駅（駅舎内） |
Contains advertising · Property data by Rakuten Travel (Supported by Rakuten Developers)
Stay nearby
12 places within 12 km of the slopes. Most of them do not take online bookings — open the map for contact details.
Nearest: 1.3 km
Nearest first
- 北緯40° 民宿正ちゃん Hotel 1.3 km
- 千草旅館 Hotel 1.6 km
- 宮越旅館 Hotel 1.6 km
- 民宿おだ Hotel 5.3 km
- 森吉山麓ゲストハウスORIYAMAKE Hotel 5.5 km
- 民宿丸慶 Hotel 5.7 km
Accommodation data: OpenStreetMap
More places to look
Guides covering Akita
- 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