【“首都圏最大級のスキー場”】「ハンターマウンテン塩原」が一足早くプレオープン 寒波で予定より1週間早まる 栃木・那須塩原市｜TBS NEWS DIG
By: TBS NEWS DIG Powered by JNN · 2025-11-22
Hunter Mountain Shiobara Ski Area is a ski area in Tochigi, Japan, on slopes between roughly 1,130 and 1,632 m. Its mapped area is about 2.5 km across, with 1 marked run and 7 lifts (about 0.6 km of piste in all).
Over the last twelve winters the ERA5 weather model gives it 193 cm of snowfall a season, 275th of the 397 ski areas we measure in Japan. Its winters are fairly steady; even the leanest, 2015/16 (130 cm), reached 67% of the average. January is usually the snowiest month, with about 61 cm. Snowfall days are cold, averaging −6.5 °C at mid-mountain, and its snow-quality score ranks 167th of 397 in Japan.
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
9.8℃
Max wind
7km/h
Elevation (est.)
1130–1632m
Across
2.5km
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
193 cm
per season
Worst of 12 winters
130 cm
A typical winter: 194 cm. The best: 243 cm.
World rank
1217
of 3,069 worldwide
Rank in country
275
of 397 in Japan
Elevation rank
65
Highest to lowest, of 397 in Japan. The centre point sits at 1,304 m, 538 m above the national median.
Quality rank
167
of 397 in Japan
Temp when snowing
-6.5°C
Japanese median: -3.5°C
Rain days
13%
Japanese median: 16%
Days over 5 cm
10%
Japanese median: 15%
Wind when snowing
28 km/h
Dryness 0.61
Frequency 0.28
Freedom from rain 0.67
Calm when snowing 0.85
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Edelweiss Ski Resort | 1.6 km | 193 cm | 1217 |
| Aizu Kogen Takatsue Ski Resort | 24 km | 322 cm | 393 |
| Aizu Kogen Daikura Ski Resort | 30 km | 340 cm | 307 |
| Aizu Kogen Takahata | 33 km | 439 cm | 120 |
| Nikko Yumoto Onsen Ski Park | 34 km | 214 cm | 1008 |
When it falls, and how winters differ
Month by month
Month by month, the most snow falls in January. March brings 72% of January’s snowfall. That is a gentler fall than the median for ski areas in Japan (52%). In amount, March brings 44 cm, about the same as the median of 46 cm.
46cmDec
61cmJan
43cmFeb
44cmMar
Winter by winter
Across the 12 winters measured, the average is 193 cm, and 6 of them fell short of it. The leanest was 2015/16 with 130 cm; the biggest was 2021/22 with 243 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.
130
243
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
1
Run length
0.6km
Lifts
7
Vertical
174m
Top 1,602 m · base 1,427 m
Run map
Other Lift
The shape of the mountain
Longest run on the map0.6 km
Steepest pitch24°measured over at least 30 m
Average gradient of the runs16.4°
Which way the slopes face
North 15%
East 0%
South 0%
West 85%
Only 15% of the vertical on the runs descends to the north or east. More of the terrain faces the sun.
By difficulty
Other 1
Lift types
- Chairlift6
- Gondola1
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
On the mountainSlope live camera ↗Operated by: ハンターマウンテン塩原Roads nearby国道4号 ↗From the resort: 19.8 kmOperated by: 関東地方整備局 宇都宮国道事務所
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.
Aizu webcams & snow report — all 8 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
2 hot spring sources with published analyses lie within 5 km of this ski area, nearest first (the hottest is 57 °C).
| Source | Distance | Temperature | pH | Type | Analysed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 新湯寺の湯 | 3.1 km | 57℃ hot | 2.3 acidic | sulphur | — |
| 元湯五色の湯 | 4.2 km | 53.8℃ hot | 6.7 neutral | sulphur | — |
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Hunter Mountain Shiobaraハンターマウンテン塩原 | Nature | 1.2 km |
| Kawaji Onsen川治温泉 | Hot spring town | 6.5 km |
| Shiobara Onsen塩原温泉郷 | Hot spring town | 6.8 km |
| Kinugawa Onsen鬼怒川温泉 | Hot spring town | 12.5 km |
| Tobu World Square東武ワールドスクウェア | Leisure | 14.4 km |
| Edo Wonderland Nikko Edomura日光江戸村 | Leisure | 16.6 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 ↗ Coordinates: 36.9306, 139.7630
Places to stay nearby
4 properties on Rakuten Travel lie within 3 km of this ski area, listed cheapest first.
| Property | From | Rating | Distance | Getting there |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 秘湯にごり湯の宿 渓雲閣 | ¥13,612 | 4.28 391 reviews | 3.1 km | ＪＲ 那須塩原駅より路線バスにて69分「塩原温泉バスターミナル」下車後定時送迎有（要予約） |
| 塩原温泉 やまの宿 下藤屋 | ¥15,400 | 4.59 1244 reviews | 3.0 km | 東北自動車道 西那須野塩原I.Cより35分。東北新幹線那須塩原より路線バス55分終点下車。送迎車有り、要予約。 |
| 塩原温泉 奥塩原高原ホテル | ¥15,400 | 4.40 520 reviews | 3.2 km | JR東北新幹線 那須塩原駅 東北自動車道 西那須野塩原I.C R400 日塩もみじライン経由 |
| にごり湯の宿 湯荘白樺 乳白色の天然硫黄泉が自慢の宿 | — | — | 3.0 km | 那須塩原駅よりバス６５分塩原温泉バスターミナル下車、送迎有（要予約）／西那須塩原ＩＣ〜Ｒ４００〜日塩もみじライン〜３５分 |
Contains advertising · Property data by Rakuten Travel (Supported by Rakuten Developers)
Stay nearby
25 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 Tochigi
- 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