Kiroro Resort
Kiroro Resort, in Hokkaido, Japan, runs from 570 m at the base to 1,180 m at the top. The map shows 37 marked runs and 10 lifts (about 25 km of piste in all).
Over the last twelve winters the ERA5 weather model gives it 331 cm of snowfall a season, 125th of the 397 ski areas we measure in Japan. It swings a lot from year to year: the biggest winter, 2021/22 (442 cm), brought more than twice as much as the leanest, 2015/16 (209 cm). January is usually the snowiest month, with about 96 cm. Snowfall days are cold, averaging −8.0 °C at mid-mountain, and its snow-quality score ranks 24th of 397 in Japan.
The nearest city of any size is Sapporo, about 28 km away. Below are links to 6 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.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sapporo Kokusai Skiing Resort | 6.4 km | 331 cm | 351 |
| Asarigawa Onsen Ski Resort | 7.9 km | 293 cm | 507 |
| Otaru Tenguyama Ski Area | 11 km | 293 cm | 507 |
| Snowcruse ONZE | 14 km | 277 cm | 586 |
| Sapporo Teine | 17 km | 260 cm | 667 |
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 69 cm, more than the median of 46 cm.
Winter by winter
Across the 12 winters measured, the average is 331 cm, and 7 of them fell short of it. The leanest was 2015/16 with 209 cm; the biggest was 2021/22 with 442 cm (2.1 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.
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 23% of the vertical on the runs descends to the north or east. More of the terrain faces the sun.
By difficulty
Lift types
- Chairlift8
- Gondola2
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
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.
Sapporo webcams & snow report — all 10 ski areas →
Official YouTube channel
More than we show here.
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 67 °C).
| Source | Distance | Temperature | pH | Type | Analysed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 赤井川ヤマハリゾート井 | 0.9 km | 67℃ hot | 7.4 neutral | — | — |
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Asari Dam朝里ダム | Nature | 7.9 km |
| Shokanbetsu-Teuri-Yagishiri Quasi-National Park暑寒別天売焼尻国定公園 | Nature | 8.1 km |
| Otaru Museum小樽市総合博物館 | Museum | 15.5 km |
| Jōzankei Dam定山渓ダム | Nature | 16.6 km |
| Jōzankei Onsen定山渓温泉 | Hot spring town | 18.3 km |
| Otaru Aquariumおたる水族館 | Museum | 18.4 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
3 properties on Rakuten Travel lie within 3 km of this ski area, listed cheapest first.
| Property | From | Rating | Distance | Getting there |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ｙｕ Ｋｉｒｏｒｏ（ユキロロ） | ¥12,253 | 4.56 18 reviews | 0.5 km | 小樽から車で約40分｜JR小樽駅～Yu Kiroro無料送迎あり（夏期限定／要事前予約） |
| クラブメッド キロロ・グランド | ¥23,570 | — | 0.8 km | 有料送迎あり。クラブメッド公式HP、各リゾートページの“アクセス”よりご出発の14日前までにお申し込みください。 |
| クラブメッド キロロ・ピーク | — | — | 0.6 km | 新千歳空港よりお車にて約1時間30分 |
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.
Accommodation data: OpenStreetMap
More places to look
What we have measured at Kiroro Resort
- Japan Lift Ticket Prices for 2026/27: What a Day Costs at Twelve Big Resorts, and the Weeks It Costs Half We checked the 2026/27 adult day ticket on each resort's own site. At the window it runs from ¥7,000 at Akakura Kanko to ¥16,700 at Rusutsu. Buying online saves up to ¥3,500, and the first and last weeks of the season cost up to half. For those cheap spring weeks, we add which way each resort's slopes face.
- Booking Japan for Christmas? Hokkaido's December Has Never Collapsed. Honshu's Has. We counted twelve Decembers at all 397 Japanese ski areas. Of those averaging 60 cm or more, 40 of Hokkaido's 46 kept over half their normal December even in their worst year. In Honshu and the west, 23 of 196 did. In December 2015, the last very strong El Niño, 250 of 397 ski areas came in below half.
- Snow Quality or Snow Quantity: Why Japan's Snowiest Ski Areas Are Not Its Best Japan's snowiest ski areas see rain on more than one winter day in four, and the wettest of them on two in five. We rank all 397 of them on a quality measure that ignores how much falls and scores what falls: temperature on snowing days, how often it dumps, and penalties for rain and wind. It disagrees with the snowfall ranking almost completely.
- Which Japanese Ski Areas Keep Their Snow at 4°C of Warming? New research from Hokkaido University puts 7 ski areas on stable natural snow at 4°C. Our own data on 397 Japanese ski areas says 17 of the ranking's top 20 are on the wrong side of that line.
- Who Is Buying Japan's Ski Resorts — and What the Snow Data Says They Actually Bought A Singapore fund took Madarao and Myoko Suginohara. China's Fosun took Kiroro, its hotels and the Club Med brand on top of them. Hong Kong and Malaysian money is in Furano, an Indonesian group is looking at Minami-Furano — and Vail Resorts, the largest ski company on earth, owns nothing here at all. Set against twelve winters of measurements, the buyers and the pass companies are chasing two different things.
- Which Way Do Japan's Ski Slopes Face, and Does It Matter? We measured which way every mapped run descends at 180 Japanese ski areas. At the middle one, 77% of the vertical faces north or east. That barely predicts snow quality: the weather decides what falls. Where direction matters is after the snow stops, and above all in spring.
Updated: 8 Oct 2026, 00:52