Family Gelände Kirigamine Ski Area is a ski area in Nagano, Japan, on slopes between roughly 1,635 and 1,683 m. Its mapped area is about 0.6 km across, with 5 marked runs and 2 lifts (about 1.1 km of piste in all).
Over the last twelve winters the ERA5 weather model gives it 133 cm of snowfall a season, 343rd of the 397 ski areas we measure in Japan. Its winters are fairly steady; even the leanest, 2015/16 (96 cm), reached 72% of the average. March is usually the snowiest month, with about 46 cm. Snowfall days average −4.6 °C at mid-mountain, and its snow-quality score ranks 268th of 397 in Japan.
Below is a link to its official live camera.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kurumayama Kogen SKYPARK | 4.0 km | 133 cm | 1909 |
| Echo Valley | 4.2 km | 133 cm | 1909 |
| Blanche Takayama | 5.5 km | 131 cm | 1942 |
| Shirakabako Royal Hill | 6.9 km | 133 cm | 1909 |
| Shirakaba 2 in 1 | 8.8 km | 133 cm | 1909 |
When it falls, and how winters differ
Month by month
Month by month, the most snow falls in March. March brings as much as January, or more. In amount, March brings 46 cm, about the same as the median of 46 cm.
Winter by winter
Across the 12 winters measured, the average is 133 cm, and 5 of them fell short of it. The leanest was 2015/16 with 96 cm; the biggest was 2014/15 with 182 cm (1.9 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
91% 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. What follows are nearby cameras, not the pistes themselves.
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.
Some cameras here are provided by Windy.com. Footage plays in Windy’s own player; we do not store it. Windy.com
Shirakaba and Kurumayama webcams & snow report — all 10 ski areas →
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 Kirigamine霧ヶ峰 | Mountain | 0.6 km |
| Kami-Suwa Station上諏訪駅 | Landmark | 6.9 km |
| Takashima Castle高島城 | Historic site | 7.8 km |
| Lake Suwa諏訪湖 | Nature | 8.7 km |
| Lake Megami女神湖 | Nature | 10.5 km |
| Suwa taisha諏訪大社 | Shrine | 11.6 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.
Places to stay nearby
3 properties on Rakuten Travel lie within 3 km of this ski area, listed cheapest first.
| Property | From | Rating | Distance | Getting there |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ヒュッテ霧ヶ峰 | ¥7,800 | 3.75 378 reviews | 0.5 km | ＪＲ中央東線上諏訪駅より霧ケ峰方面バス３０分強清水下車／中央道諏訪ＩＣより３０分 |
| 双葉屋 | ¥9,210 | — | 0.3 km | 中央道諏訪ICより車で30分 |
| 鷲が峰ひゅって | — | — | 2.5 km | 中央道、諏訪I.C・岡谷I.Cより霧ヶ峰方面へ３５分／JR上諏訪駅より霧ヶ峰方面行きバスにて４６分、八島湿原下車徒歩５分 |
Contains advertising · Property data by Rakuten Travel (Supported by Rakuten Developers)
Stay nearby
22 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 Nagano
- A Historic El Niño Is Forecast. Here Is What the Last Big One Did to Japan's Snow. NOAA gives a very strong El Niño better than a 90% chance this winter. We measured every Japanese ski area across the last 12 winters: El Niño winters ran 88% of normal, and the strongest of the twelve left Japan at 63%. But Hakuba held 92% of its average that winter while Niseko fell to 57%.
- Which Famous Ski Resorts Actually Get the Most Snow? 24 Names, Measured Niseko is 526th in the world for snowfall. Zermatt is 554th, Jackson Hole 924th, Aspen 1,201st. Measured identically across 3,069 ski areas, the names everyone books and the places it actually snows turn out to be two different lists.
- 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.
Updated: 8 Oct 2026, 00:52