Budoh Snow Resort is a ski area in Niigata, Japan, on slopes between roughly 156 and 645 m. Its mapped area is about 1.7 km across, with 5 marked runs and 2 lifts (about 3.9 km of piste in all).
Over the last twelve winters the ERA5 weather model gives it 472 cm of snowfall a season, 46th of the 397 ski areas we measure in Japan. It swings a lot from year to year: the biggest winter, 2017/18 (725 cm), brought more than 3 times as much as the leanest, 2015/16 (222 cm). January is usually the snowiest month, with about 170 cm. Snowfall days average −0.8 °C at mid-mountain, close to freezing, so the snow is often heavy, and its snow-quality score ranks 256th of 397 in Japan.
The nearest city of any size is Niigata, about 69 km away. Below are links to 2 official live cameras.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hachimoriyama Ski Area | 34 km | 213 cm | 1022 |
| Yokone | 39 km | 446 cm | 114 |
| Mount Gassan Ski Resort | 43 km | 655 cm | 25 |
| Tainai Ski and Snowboard area | 43 km | 629 cm | 34 |
| Asahi Shizenkan Snow Park | 45 km | 419 cm | 149 |
When it falls, and how winters differ
Month by month
Month by month, the most snow falls in January. March brings 32% 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 55 cm, more than the median of 46 cm.
Winter by winter
Across the 12 winters measured, the average is 472 cm, and 6 of them fell short of it. The leanest was 2015/16 with 222 cm; the biggest was 2017/18 with 725 cm (3.3 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
79% 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
- Chairlift2
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.
Road conditions decide whether you can get there at all. Check before you leave.
Footage remains the copyright of each operator. JAPANSNOWLINE neither stores nor redistributes it.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Sasagawa Nagare笹川流れ | Nature | 7.5 km |
| Marine Park Nezugasekiマリンパークねずがせき | Park | 18.4 km |
| Iyoboya Hallイヨボヤ会館 | Museum | 19.4 km |
| Murakami Castle村上城 | Historic site | 19.8 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.
Stay nearby
9 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
Guides covering Niigata
- Which Ski Resort Gets the Most Snow in the World? 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.
- How Japan's Early-Bird Lift Tickets Work: At Hakuba Happo-One, Eight of the Nine Need a Japanese ID Card Hakuba Happo-One opened early-bird sales at 10:00 on 1 October. A day costs ¥6,400 against ¥9,800 at the window, 35% off. But every ticket on the list except one needs a My Number Card and a Japanese phone app. A visitor from abroad can buy exactly one of them, at 15% off.
- Japan Lift Ticket Prices for 2026/27: What a Day Costs at Twelve Big Resorts, and the Weeks It Costs Half We checked the 2026/27 adult day ticket on each resort's own site. At the window it runs from ¥7,000 at Akakura Kanko to ¥16,700 at Rusutsu. Buying online saves up to ¥3,500, and the first and last weeks of the season cost up to half. For those cheap spring weeks, we add which way each resort's slopes face.
Updated: 8 Oct 2026, 00:52