Karuizawa Snow Park is a ski area in Gunma, Japan, on slopes between roughly 1,269 and 1,397 m. Its mapped area is about 0.8 km across, with 6 marked runs and 3 lifts (about 2.6 km of piste in all).
Over the last twelve winters the ERA5 weather model gives it 115 cm of snowfall a season, 365th of the 397 ski areas we measure in Japan. It swings a lot from year to year: the biggest winter, 2014/15 (190 cm), brought more than 3 times as much as the leanest, 2025/26 (56 cm). March is usually the snowiest month, with about 40 cm. Snowfall days average −3.8 °C at mid-mountain, and its snow-quality score ranks 320th 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.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Prince Hotels and Resorts Karuizawa | 9.5 km | 81 cm | 2572 |
| Takamine Mountain Park Ski Area | 15 km | 145 cm | 1729 |
| Saku Ski Garden Parada | 18 km | 90 cm | 2478 |
| Kazawa Snow Area | 19 km | 136 cm | 1860 |
| Palcall Tsumagoi Resort Ski & Hotel | 22 km | 178 cm | 1335 |
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 40 cm, about the same as the median of 46 cm.
Winter by winter
Across the 12 winters measured, the average is 115 cm, and 5 of them fell short of it. The leanest was 2025/26 with 56 cm; the biggest was 2014/15 with 190 cm (3.4 times as much).
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
Only 35% of the vertical on the runs descends to the north or east. More of the terrain faces the sun.
By difficulty
Lift types
- Chairlift3
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.
Karuizawa and Asama webcams & snow report — all 3 ski areas →
Hot springs nearby, as analysed
6 hot spring sources with published analyses lie within 5 km of this ski area, nearest first (the hottest is 33.5 °C).
| Source | Distance | Temperature | pH | Type | Analysed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 小瀬温泉蓬莱館 | 3.6 km | 32.5℃ lukewarm | 7.5 mildly alkaline | simple | 1969 |
| 霧積温泉入の湯 | 4.1 km | — | 7.6 mildly alkaline | sulphate | 1983 |
| 北軽井沢温泉四季1号泉 | 4.9 km | 29.2℃ lukewarm | 7.4 neutral | simple | 1977 |
| 北軽井沢温泉四季1号 | 4.9 km | — | 8.2 mildly alkaline | simple | 1987 |
| 北軽井沢温泉四季2号泉 | 4.9 km | 33.5℃ lukewarm | 8.2 mildly alkaline | simple | 1977 |
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Karuizawa軽井沢町 | Old streets | 8.5 km |
| Usui Pass碓氷峠 | Nature | 9.2 km |
| Mount Asama浅間山 | Mountain | 9.4 km |
| Usui Bridge No. 3碓氷第三橋梁 | Landmark | 9.5 km |
| Usui Pass Railway Heritage Park碓氷峠鉄道文化むら | Museum | 13.4 km |
| Yanba Dam八ッ場ダム | Landmark | 17 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ｖｉｌｌａ Ｔｈｅ Ｃｌｕｂ ＫＡＲＵＩＺＡＷＡ | ¥6,000 | 4.25 239 reviews | 2.0 km | ＪＲ 軽井沢駅よりお車にて３０分／送迎バス（事前予約制）にて約３０分 |
| ＡＮＡホリデイ・インリゾート軽井沢 ｂｙ ＩＨＧ | ¥8,867 | 4.26 772 reviews | 0.5 km | 上信越自動車道「碓氷軽井沢IC」より約50分。 軽井沢駅からは無料送迎バスで約40分。 |
| 軽井沢高原ゴルフ倶楽部 | — | — | 2.2 km | 軽井沢駅よりお車で約40分、碓氷軽井沢ICより約1時間。 |
Contains advertising · Property data by Rakuten Travel (Supported by Rakuten Developers)
Stay nearby
10 places within 12 km of the slopes. Most of them do not take online bookings — open the map for contact details.
Nearest: 2.1 km
Nearest first
- 北軽井沢ハイランドリゾートホテル Hotel 5.4 km
- はまゆう山荘 Hotel 5.7 km
- ダイヤモンド軽井沢H Hotel 6.5 km
- ダイヤモンド軽井沢ホテル Hotel 6.5 km
- 紀州鉄道パルコール嬬恋 Hotel 6.9 km
- 紀州鉄道パルコール村 Hotel 6.9 km
Accommodation data: OpenStreetMap
More places to look
Guides covering Gunma
- Everywhere on Earth You Climb for Snow. Japan Is the One Place You Drive Toward the Sea. Across 3,069 ski areas we measure, height and snowfall move together — +0.58 in France, +0.85 in Germany. In Japan the figure is +0.02. The reason is not that elevation stopped working.
- How Close to Rain Does the Snow Fall? Japan, the Alps and North America Compared We measured how close to freezing the snow already falls at 240 randomly drawn resorts in the Alps and North America, and at all 397 in Japan. Japan is not one place: Honshu is among the most exposed, Hokkaido among the least.
- Why Is Hokkaido's Snow Colder? Latitude, Elevation and Rain Across 397 Japanese ski areas, elevation sets the temperature and latitude does almost nothing to it — inside Honshu, going north is worth nothing at all. What latitude buys instead is the absence of rain.
Updated: 8 Oct 2026, 00:52