🇯🇵 Japan · Nagano

Hakuba Sanosaka Snow Resort

白馬さのさか

Off season Official site Lift tickets (official)

Hakuba Sanosaka Snow Resort is a ski area in Nagano, Japan, on slopes between roughly 766 and 1,203 m. Its mapped area is about 2.0 km across, with 10 marked runs and 4 lifts (about 5.5 km of piste in all).

Over the last twelve winters the ERA5 weather model gives it 415 cm of snowfall a season, 72nd of the 397 ski areas we measure in Japan. It swings a lot from year to year: the biggest winter, 2024/25 (609 cm), brought more than twice as much as the leanest, 2019/20 (301 cm). January is usually the snowiest month, with about 138 cm. Weather models read low in the mountains: a Japan Meteorological Agency station 8.7 km away measured 447 cm a winter over the last three seasons, against 453 cm from the model. Snowfall days average −2.4 °C at mid-mountain, and its snow-quality score ranks 153rd of 397 in Japan.

The nearest city of any size is Nagano, about 30 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.

Temperature

12.3℃

Max wind

6km/h

Elevation (est.)

766–1203m

Across

2.0km

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.

Seasonal snowfall

415 cm

per season

Worst of 12 winters

301 cm

A typical winter: 397 cm. The best: 609 cm.

World rank

153

of 3,069 worldwide

Rank in country

of 397 in Japan

Elevation rank

125

Highest to lowest, of 397 in Japan. The centre point sits at 991 m, 225 m above the national median.

Quality rank

153

of 397 in Japan

Temp when snowing

-2.4°C

Japanese median: -3.5°C

Rain days

22%

Japanese median: 16%

Days over 5 cm

27%

Japanese median: 15%

Wind when snowing

10 km/h

Dryness 0.32

Frequency 0.78

Freedom from rain 0.43

Calm when snowing 1.00

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
Kashimayari Snow Resort	2.5 km	449 cm	110
Hakuba Goryu	4.8 km	414 cm	155
Hakuba 47	5.6 km	668 cm	21
Jiigatake Snow Resort	7.8 km	449 cm	110
Hakuba Happo-One	8.4 km	414 cm	155

When it falls, and how winters differ

Month by month

Month by month, the most snow falls in January. March brings 45% of January’s snowfall. That is in line with the median for ski areas in Japan (52%). In amount, March brings 62 cm, more than the median of 46 cm.

129cm

Dec

138cm

Jan

86cm

Feb

62cm

Mar

Average snowfall by month, last 12 winters

Winter by winter

Across the 12 winters measured, the average is 415 cm, and 7 of them fell short of it. The leanest was 2019/20 with 301 cm; the biggest was 2024/25 with 609 cm (2.0 times as much).

301

609

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.

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

5.5km

Lifts

Vertical

355m

Top 1,146 m · base 791 m

Run map

EasyIntermediateAdvanced Lift

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

The shape of the mountain

Longest run on the map1.2 km

Steepest pitch24°measured over at least 30 m

Average gradient of the runs12.6°

Which way the slopes face

North 19%

East 74%

South 6%

West 1%

93% 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

Easy 2

Intermediate 5

Advanced 3

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.

Live Cameras

Roads nearby国道19号 ↗From the resort: 14.9 kmOperated by: 関東地方整備局長野国道事務所

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.

Hakuba Valley webcams & snow report — all 10 ski areas →

Official YouTube channel

More than we show here.

What was actually measured nearby

Total snowfall from December to March recorded at the 白馬 weather station — 8.7 km from this ski area, 281 m below its mid-slope.

Three-season average	447 cm
2023/24	444 cm
2024/25	648 cm
2025/26	248 cm

The figure calculated on this page is 453 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

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
Lake Aoki青木湖	Nature	1.9 km
Lake Nakatsuna中綱湖	Nature	2.8 km
Lake Kizaki木崎湖	Nature	7.2 km
Kurobe Gorge黒部峡谷	Nature	13.9 km
Kurobe Dam黒部ダム	Landmark	16.8 km
Mount Tsurugi剱岳	Mountain	19.6 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.

Official piste map ↗

Nearby resorts

Get directions ↗ Open in Google Maps ↗

Places to stay nearby

12 properties on Rakuten Travel lie within 3 km of this ski area, listed cheapest first.

Property	From	Rating	Distance	Getting there
鹿島槍スポーツヴィレッジ	¥3,000	3.86 51 reviews	3.0 km	長野自動車道安曇野ICよりお車にて60分。
ＷＨＩＴＥ　ＨＯＴＥＬ　ＧＲＡＮＤ　ＨＡＫＵＢＡ	¥5,500	4.33 10 reviews	0.7 km	JR大糸線簗場（やなば）駅より送迎１０分／長野自動車道｜安曇野ＩＣ・上信越自動車道｜長野ＩＣより約６０分
プチペンション　アルファ	¥9,790	4.25 95 reviews	0.9 km	長野道安曇野Ｉ.Cから５０分　青木湖畔
雪ノ音　＾	¥17,400	—	1.2 km	南神城駅から徒歩で約３分
Ｌａｋｅｓｉｄｅ　ｖｉｌｌａ　ＳＵＩ　ＨＡＫＵＢＡ	¥30,000	—	2.5 km	簗場駅より徒歩11分、安曇野ICより車で約50分
ＨＡＫＵＢＡ７６	—	—	1.3 km	白馬駅よりお車で約１０分
民宿　まるじう館	—	—	1.4 km	関越・上信越自動車道　長野ＩＣ下車、国道１９号線から白馬・長野オリンピック道路経由で約４時間
民宿かね久	—	—	1.4 km	南神城駅より徒歩１０分／長野自動車道　豊科ＩＣ・長野ＩＣ・糸魚川ＩＣよりいずれも車で５０分
ロッヂ中峯	—	—	1.7 km	ＪＲ大糸線　南神城駅より徒歩５分
民宿　むじなざわ	—	—	2.3 km	ＪＲ　南神城駅より徒歩４０分（送迎有り）
白馬ヴューヴィラ　＾	—	—	2.7 km	南神城駅から徒歩で約４分
旅館　木塵	—	—	3.5 km	ＪＲ　神城駅まで送迎あり

Contains advertising · Property data by Rakuten Travel (Supported by Rakuten Developers)

Stay nearby

1 places within 12 km of the slopes. Most of them do not take online bookings — open the map for contact details.

1 Hotel

Nearest: 11.2 km

Nearest first

信州小川村・林りん館 Hotel 11.2 km

Accommodation data: OpenStreetMap

More places to look

Booking.com ↗Agoda ↗Rakuten Travelad ↗

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.