パウダーフリークが集まる超穴場ゲレンデ #ほろたちスキー場
By: YOHちゃんねる【パウダー日和】 · 2026-01-02
Kokusetsu Horotachi Ski Area is a ski area in Hokkaido, Japan, on slopes between roughly 155 and 337 m. Its mapped area is about 0.9 km across, with 4 marked runs and 1 lift (about 2.9 km of piste in all).
Over the last twelve winters the ERA5 weather model gives it 250 cm of snowfall a season, 197th of the 397 ski areas we measure in Japan. Its winters are fairly steady; even the leanest, 2019/20 (198 cm), reached 79% of the average. December brings as much snow as January here (86 and 65 cm on average). Snowfall days average −5.8 °C at mid-mountain, and its snow-quality score ranks 97th of 397 in Japan.
Snow depth and the seven-day outlook appear here once snow starts to fall. Until then, the long-run record comes first.
Temperature
10.4℃
Max wind
24.5km/h
Elevation (est.)
155–337m
Across
0.9km
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
250 cm
per season
Worst of 12 winters
198 cm
A typical winter: 250 cm. The best: 340 cm.
World rank
734
of 3,069 worldwide
Rank in country
197
of 397 in Japan
Elevation rank
323
Highest to lowest, of 397 in Japan. The centre point sits at 271 m, 495 m below the national median.
Quality rank
97
of 397 in Japan
Temp when snowing
-5.8°C
Japanese median: -3.5°C
Rain days
7%
Japanese median: 16%
Days over 5 cm
12%
Japanese median: 15%
Wind when snowing
18 km/h
Dryness 0.56
Frequency 0.34
Freedom from rain 0.82
Calm when snowing 0.96
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wassamu Higashiyama Ski Resort | 23 km | 217 cm | 978 |
| Ashimoi Kanko Takaho Ski Area | 26 km | 225 cm | 913 |
| Pippu Ski Slopes | 31 km | 220 cm | 953 |
| Santa present park | 31 km | 200 cm | 1149 |
| Inosawa Sky Slopes | 34 km | 200 cm | 1149 |
When it falls, and how winters differ
Month by month
Month by month, the most snow falls in December. March brings 68% 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.
86cmDec
65cmJan
55cmFeb
44cmMar
Winter by winter
Across the 12 winters measured, the average is 250 cm, and 6 of them fell short of it. The leanest was 2019/20 with 198 cm; the biggest was 2017/18 with 340 cm (1.7 times as much).
340
198
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
4
Run length
2.9km
Lifts
1
Vertical
200m
Top 359 m · base 159 m
Run map
EasyIntermediateAdvanced Lift
The shape of the mountain
Longest run on the map1.2 km
Steepest pitch26°measured over at least 30 m
Average gradient of the runs14.4°
Which way the slopes face
North 1%
East 58%
South 41%
West 0%
59% 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
Easy 1
Intermediate 2
Advanced 1
Lift types
- Chairlift1
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.
Asahikawa webcams & snow report — all 10 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.
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 Santo三頭山 (北海道) | Mountain | 9.4 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 ↗ Coordinates: 44.0149, 142.1356
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
Guides covering Hokkaido
- A Historic El Niño Is Forecast. Here Is What the Last Big One Did to Japan's Snow. NOAA gives a very strong El Niño better than a 90% chance this winter. We measured every Japanese ski area across the last 12 winters: El Niño winters ran 88% of normal, and the strongest of the twelve left Japan at 63%. But Hakuba held 92% of its average that winter while Niseko fell to 57%.
- Which Famous Ski Resorts Actually Get the Most Snow? 24 Names, Measured Niseko is 526th in the world for snowfall. Zermatt is 554th, Jackson Hole 924th, Aspen 1,201st. Measured identically across 3,069 ski areas, the names everyone books and the places it actually snows turn out to be two different lists.
- Australia Just Had Its Worst Season in Twenty Years. Here Is What Japan's 12-Winter Record Says About Booking It Instead. Snow depth at Spencers Creek peaked at 94.5 cm, the third lowest since 1954, and resorts closed in August. Our own measure — snowfall, not depth — puts Australia at 50% of its 12-year average. The gap between those two numbers is the story: it was the warmth, not only the lack of snow. New Zealand, meanwhile, finished at 108% of normal.
Updated: 8 Oct 2026, 00:52