ひるぜんベアバレー #skiing #snowboarding
By: Liz Kate · 2026-01-02
Hiruzen Bear Valley Ski Resort is a ski area in Okayama, Japan, on slopes between roughly 580 and 738 m. Its mapped area is about 0.8 km across, with 7 marked runs and 3 lifts (about 2.1 km of piste in all).
Over the last twelve winters the ERA5 weather model gives it 161 cm of snowfall a season, 303rd of the 397 ski areas we measure in Japan. It swings a lot from year to year: the biggest winter, 2024/25 (238 cm), brought more than 3 times as much as the leanest, 2015/16 (78 cm). January is usually the snowiest month, with about 57 cm. Snowfall days average −2.1 °C at mid-mountain, and its snow-quality score ranks 341st 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.
Temperature
14.8℃
Max wind
6.9km/h
Elevation (est.)
580–738m
Across
0.8km
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
161 cm
per season
Worst of 12 winters
78 cm
A typical winter: 170 cm. The best: 238 cm.
World rank
1527
of 3,069 worldwide
Rank in country
303
of 397 in Japan
Elevation rank
238
Highest to lowest, of 397 in Japan. The centre point sits at 623 m, 143 m below the national median.
Quality rank
341
of 397 in Japan
Temp when snowing
-2.1°C
Japanese median: -3.5°C
Rain days
29%
Japanese median: 16%
Days over 5 cm
10%
Japanese median: 15%
Wind when snowing
21 km/h
Dryness 0.29
Frequency 0.28
Freedom from rain 0.35
Calm when snowing 0.93
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kagamiganaru Ski Area | 9.6 km | 185 cm | 1281 |
| OkuDaisen Ski resort | 10 km | 185 cm | 1281 |
| Daisen Masumizu Kogen Snow Park | 14 km | 160 cm | 1541 |
| Daisen White Resort | 16 km | 158 cm | 1564 |
| Ski & Board Resort Tsuguro Kogen | 18 km | 121 cm | 2077 |
When it falls, and how winters differ
Month by month
Month by month, the most snow falls in January. March brings 42% 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 24 cm, less than the median of 46 cm.
37cmDec
57cmJan
43cmFeb
24cmMar
Winter by winter
Across the 12 winters measured, the average is 161 cm, and 5 of them fell short of it. The leanest was 2015/16 with 78 cm; the biggest was 2024/25 with 238 cm (3.1 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.
78
238
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
7
Run length
2.1km
Lifts
3
Vertical
137m
Top 726 m · base 590 m
Run map
NoviceOther Lift
The shape of the mountain
Longest run on the map0.6 km
Steepest pitch22°measured over at least 30 m
Average gradient of the runs10.8°
Which way the slopes face
North 89%
East 4%
South 0%
West 8%
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
Novice 2
Other 5
Lift types
- Chairlift2
- Magic carpet1
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.
Daisen webcams & snow report — all 5 ski areas →
See the snow in motion
Videos remain the copyright of whoever filmed them. JAPANSNOWLINE stores no video and plays everything through the standard YouTube player.
Hot springs nearby, as analysed
1 hot spring sources with published analyses lie within 5 km of this ski area, nearest first (the hottest is 27.6 °C).
| Source | Distance | Temperature | pH | Type | Analysed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 蒜山高原温泉 | 2.6 km | 27.6℃ lukewarm | — | alkaline simple | 1991 |
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Hiruzen Kōgen Centerヒルゼン高原センター | Leisure | 4.9 km |
| Hiruzen Plateau蒜山高原 | Mountain | 7.7 km |
| Daisen大山 (鳥取県) | Mountain | 13.5 km |
| Kamochi Shrine金持神社 | Shrine | 13.5 km |
| Daisen-ji Temple大山寺 (鳥取県大山町) | Temple | 15.7 km |
| Mount Senjō (Tottori)船上山 | Mountain | 18.8 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.
Official piste map ↗ Coordinates: 35.2595, 133.5978
Places to stay nearby
6 properties on Rakuten Travel lie within 3 km of this ski area, listed cheapest first.
| Property | From | Rating | Distance | Getting there |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 蒜山インターホテル | ¥5,280 | 3.75 70 reviews | 2.2 km | 米子自動車道 蒜山ＩＣを出て左へ約１分（約８００ｍ） |
| フェアフィールド・バイ・マリオット・岡山蒜山高原 | ¥5,899 | 4.42 145 reviews | 3.0 km | 国道482号沿い。米子自動車道、蒜山ICから車で約2分。JR「江尾駅」車約20分。 |
| 蒜山 コテージ 森の散歩 | ¥7,270 | — | 0.4 km | 米子自動車道【蒜山IC】より車で５分。大自然の中の貸コテージ♪ |
| コテージ蒜山の森 | ¥7,270 | — | 0.4 km | 中国勝山駅よりコミュニティバスにて６０分。蒜山インターよりお車にて５分 |
| 森の中の喫茶とお宿もりくらす | ¥12,300 | 5.00 8 reviews | 0.6 km | ＪＲ伯備線 「江尾駅」車約２０分。米子自動車道、蒜山ＩＣから車で約５分。 |
| 森のオ－ベルジュ | — | — | 0.7 km | 中国勝山駅よりコミュニティバスにて約６０分。蒜山インタ－より車で約５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.
6 Hotel 1 Guest house 1 Hostel
Nearest: 0.7 km
Nearest first
- コテージ蒜山の森 白壁のログコテージ Guest house 0.7 km
- グランピングログコテージ ヴィラ Hotel 0.7 km
- 蒜山インターホテル Hotel 2.2 km
- フェアフィールド・バイ・マリオット 岡山蒜山高原 Hotel 3 km
- ひるぜん塩釜キャンピングヴィレッジ Hotel 8.7 km
- ひるぜん塩釜キャンピングヴィレッジ Hotel 8.7 km
Accommodation data: OpenStreetMap
More places to look
Updated: 8 Oct 2026, 00:52