Kazawa Snow Area is a ski area in Gunma, Japan, on slopes between roughly 1,305 and 1,807 m. Its mapped area is about 1.9 km across, with 11 marked runs and 8 lifts (about 5.9 km of piste in all).
Over the last twelve winters the ERA5 weather model gives it 136 cm of snowfall a season, 336th of the 397 ski areas we measure in Japan. It swings a lot from year to year: the biggest winter, 2014/15 (202 cm), brought more than twice as much as the leanest, 2025/26 (95 cm). March still brings 38 cm on average, close to January, its snowiest month. Weather models read low in the mountains: a Japan Meteorological Agency station 11.8 km away measured 379 cm a winter over the last three seasons, against 138 cm from the model. Snowfall days are cold, averaging −6.0 °C at mid-mountain, and its snow-quality score ranks 248th 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Takamine Mountain Park Ski Area | 7.1 km | 145 cm | 1729 |
| Palcall Tsumagoi Resort Ski & Hotel | 10 km | 178 cm | 1335 |
| Sugadaira Kogen Davos Hill Ski Area | 11 km | 153 cm | 1621 |
| Sugadaira Taro Area | 11 km | 153 cm | 1621 |
| Sugadairakogen Pine Beak Ski Area | 12 km | 153 cm | 1621 |
When it falls, and how winters differ
Month by month
Month by month, the most snow falls in January. March brings 93% of January’s snowfall. That is a gentler fall than the median for ski areas in Japan (52%). For skiing, though, the amount matters more than the share: March brings 38 cm, less than the median of 46 cm.
Winter by winter
Across the 12 winters measured, the average is 136 cm, and 5 of them fell short of it. The leanest was 2025/26 with 95 cm; the biggest was 2014/15 with 202 cm (2.1 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
99% 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
- Chairlift8
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.
What was actually measured nearby
Total snowfall from December to March recorded at the 菅平 weather station — 11.8 km from this ski area, 303 m below its mid-slope.
| Three-season average | 379 cm |
| 2023/24 | 509 cm |
| 2024/25 | 345 cm |
| 2025/26 | 284 cm |
The figure calculated on this page is 138 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
Hot springs nearby, as analysed
8 hot spring sources with published analyses lie within 5 km of this ski area, nearest first (the hottest is 42 °C).
| Source | Distance | Temperature | pH | Type | Analysed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 鹿沢温泉雲井の湯 | 1.6 km | — | 6.6 neutral | bicarbonate | 1986 |
| 鹿沢温泉東雲の湯 | 1.6 km | — | 6.8 neutral | simple | 1989 |
| 鹿沢温泉東急泉 | 1.6 km | 27℃ lukewarm | 6.7 neutral | simple | 1982 |
| 鹿沢温泉竜宮の湯 | 1.6 km | 39.5℃ warm | 7 neutral | bicarbonate | 1982 |
| 鹿沢温泉竜宮の湯 | 1.7 km | — | 6.9 neutral | bicarbonate | 1989 |
| 渋沢温泉 | 4.9 km | 42℃ hot | 8.25 mildly alkaline | simple | — |
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Mount Azumaya四阿山 | Mountain | 8.6 km |
| Mount Asama浅間山 | Mountain | 10.8 km |
| Kanbara Kannondō鎌原観音堂 | Temple | 12.2 km |
| Komoro Castle小諸城 | Historic site | 15.4 km |
| Ueda Castle上田城 | Historic site | 17.7 km |
| Karuizawa軽井沢町 | Old streets | 20 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 ↗Places to stay nearby
8 properties on Rakuten Travel lie within 3 km of this ski area, listed cheapest first.
| Property | From | Rating | Distance | Getting there |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 鹿の湯 つちや | ¥5,500 | 3.48 112 reviews | 1.6 km | 上信越道 湯の丸ＩＣ下車 湯の丸経由４０分。 |
| 鹿鳴館＜群馬県＞ | ¥8,580 | 4.33 47 reviews | 1.5 km | 最寄高速道路 上信越道：上田・菅平ICから菅平・嬬恋方面へ 車で30分 東御嬬恋線沿いにございます |
| 休暇村 嬬恋鹿沢（旧：休暇村 鹿沢高原） | ¥10,000 | 4.13 195 reviews | 1.3 km | 長野新幹線上田駅温泉口より送迎バス １１：１０／１５：００（要予約） |
| 鹿沢リゾートホテル | — | — | 0.5 km | 万座・鹿沢口／東京→上信越自動車道→碓氷・軽井沢ＩＣより約４５分 |
| 隠れ宿 羽和陽 | — | — | 0.5 km | 【電車】ＪＲ万座鹿沢口駅からお車で約２０分／【車】小諸ICより約35分 |
| ロッヂ すばる | — | — | 0.7 km | 万座・鹿沢口駅下車 タクシー２０分／ 関越・上信越道 小諸IC・東部湯の丸ICより３０分、渋川ICより８０分 |
| 嬬恋鹿沢キャンピングガーデン | — | — | 1.4 km | 上信越自動車道 小諸IＩＣよりお車にて約３０分 |
| ホテル鹿沢 真田屋 | — | 4.00 49 reviews | 1.6 km | ＪＲ万座鹿沢口駅下車、タクシーで２０分／小諸ＩＣより県道７９号～県道９４号経由 |
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.
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