🇯🇵 Japan · Niigata

Myoko Suginohara

妙高杉ノ原スキー場
Off season Official site Lift tickets (official) Buy on Asoview PR Last season (2025/26) adult day ticket ¥8,000 1-day pass (lifts and gondola) · this season's price not yet published (as of 16 Sept)

Myoko Suginohara, in Niigata, Japan, runs from 745 m at the base to 1,855 m at the top. The map shows 22 marked runs and 5 lifts (about 21 km of piste in all).

Over the last twelve winters the ERA5 weather model gives it 357 cm of snowfall a season, 101st of the 397 ski areas we measure in Japan. Its winters are fairly steady; even the leanest, 2015/16 (230 cm), reached 64% of the average. January is usually the snowiest month, with about 119 cm. Snowfall days average −4.4 °C at mid-mountain, and its snow-quality score ranks 48th of 397 in Japan.

The nearest city of any size is Nagano, about 24 km away. Below are links to 3 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
11.6℃
Max wind
7.2km/h
Elevation
745–1855m

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
357 cm
per season
Worst of 12 winters
230 cm
A typical winter: 350 cm. The best: 435 cm.
World rank
268
of 3,069 worldwide
Rank in country
101
of 397 in Japan
Elevation rank
77
Highest to lowest, of 397 in Japan. The centre point sits at 1,200 m, 434 m above the national median.
Quality rank
48
of 397 in Japan
Temp when snowing
-4.4°C
Japanese median: -3.5°C
Rain days
12%
Japanese median: 16%
Days over 5 cm
23%
Japanese median: 15%
Wind when snowing
14 km/h
Dryness 0.46
Frequency 0.66
Freedom from rain 0.70
Calm when snowing 1.00

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 areaDistanceSeasonal snowfallWorld rank
Ikenotaira Onsen Alpen Blick Ski Resort1.4 km432 cm129
Akakura Kanko Ski Resort2.9 km445 cm117
Akakura Onsen Ski Area4.0 km445 cm117
Seki Onsen Ski Area4.4 km689 cm19
Kurohime Kogen5.1 km432 cm129

When it falls, and how winters differ

Month by month

Month by month, the most snow falls in January. March brings 49% of January’s snowfall. That is in line with the median for ski areas in Japan (52%). In amount, March brings 58 cm, more than the median of 46 cm.

98cm
Dec
119cm
Jan
81cm
Feb
58cm
Mar
Average snowfall by month, last 12 winters

Winter by winter

Across the 12 winters measured, the average is 357 cm, and 7 of them fell short of it. The leanest was 2015/16 with 230 cm; the biggest was 2021/22 with 435 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.

230
435
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
22
Run length
21km
Lifts
5
Vertical
1,118m
Top 1,857 m · base 739 m

Run map

EasyIntermediateAdvanced Lift
North is up. Runs are coloured by difficulty; black lines are lifts.
Run map

Drag to move around, and use + and − to zoom. On a phone, swipe to move and pinch to zoom in further.

The shape of the mountain

Longest run on the map4.2 km
Steepest pitch37°measured over at least 30 m
Average gradient of the runs11.4°

Which way the slopes face

North 1%
East 50%
South 48%
West 2%

51% 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 11
Intermediate 7
Advanced 3
Other 1

Lift types

  • Chairlift4
  • 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

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.

See the snow in motion

美しいグルーミングバーンでカービング・ふかふかパウダーを独り占めできる独占プランが妙高杉ノ原スキー場にある!ドローン男子空撮

By: ドローン男子 7sky creative · 2026-01-09

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

7 hot spring sources with published analyses lie within 5 km of this ski area, nearest first (the hottest is 92 °C).

SourceDistanceTemperaturepHTypeAnalysed
新笹ヶ峰鉱泉新笹ヶ峰1.8 km15℃ cold6.7 neutralsimple—
妙高・池ノ平南地獄谷A2.7 km92℃ hot5.6 mildly acidic——
赤倉・新赤倉元湯3.3 km53.5℃ hot6.4 neutralsimple—
燕北地獄谷3.6 km47.5℃ hot6.7 neutral——
白滝白瀧温泉3.6 km——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.

PlaceTypeDistance
Naena Falls苗名滝Nature2.6 km
Mount Myōkō妙高山Mountain3.6 km
Mount Kurohime黒姫山 (長野県)Mountain6.2 km
Lake Nojiri野尻湖Nature8.7 km
Mount Togakushi戸隠山Mountain13.3 km
Togakushi Shrine戸隠神社Shrine14.9 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

18 properties on Rakuten Travel lie within 3 km of this ski area, listed cheapest first.

Press it and Rakuten Travel shows what is free on those dates across the properties listed here. Picking a property below does the same for that one property.

PropertyFromRatingDistanceGetting there
スポーツプラザ四季 原田荘¥5,0004.40 5 reviews2.8 km妙高高原駅からお車で15分
やまいち荘¥5,1004.75 6 reviews2.5 kmJRきたしなの線妙高高原駅よりお車にて15分
赤倉温泉 旅館 清水屋¥5,5004.14 89 reviews4.2 kmJR 妙高高原駅から車で10分/上信越道 妙高高原ICより車で10分
Lodge ぷるーく¥6,0005.00 7 reviews1.6 km上信越自動車道 妙高高原ICよりお車で約15分 妙高高原駅よりバスで約15分
ロッジ オークランド¥6,8004.25 7 reviews3.5 km黒姫駅より車で10分 野尻・信濃町インターより車で5分
妙高高原のペンション空飛ブウサギ¥7,0003.71 80 reviews2.3 kmJR妙高高原駅/上信越道 妙高高原ICより車で5分
居酒屋民宿 富士美荘¥7,0003.50 11 reviews2.7 km妙高高原駅よりお車にて約15分
池の平温泉 ロッジ コクハ¥7,0003.50 9 reviews3.0 km長野自動車道 妙高高原ICより車で約5分/信越線 妙高高原駅よりバスで約10分
ホテルアルペンブリック¥7,6503.98 716 reviews2.4 km北しなの線 妙高高原駅より車で10分/上信越道 妙高高原IC~国道18号線を通過、直進後突き当りを左折し、2.5キロ先
赤倉温泉 赤倉観光ホテル¥38,5004.88 654 reviews2.9 km電車◆しなの鉄道・えちごトキめき鉄道-妙高高原駅から無料送迎バス(予約制)あり/車◆上信越道- 妙高高原ICより10分
ペンション シェーネ——2.5 km妙高高原駅から車で7分、妙高高原I.Cから5分。
本館めぼうき——2.5 km妙高高原駅より車にて10分/妙高原インターより車にて5分
Show the other 6
PropertyFromRatingDistanceGetting there
旅苑さかや——2.6 km妙高高原駅からお車で10分
四季の宿 アルファイン 秀雲荘—4.56 27 reviews2.7 km越後ときめき鉄道 妙高高原駅より車で10分、バスで25分
さつき荘 <新潟県>——2.7 km妙高高原駅からお車で20分
癒しの宿 旅館 田端屋—4.50 21 reviews2.8 km信越本線 妙高高原駅より6km/上信越自動車道 妙高高原ICより5km
ロッジ 杉の原——2.8 kmJR信越線 妙高高原駅から車で7分
ロッジ&レストラン 「ベアー」——3.9 km妙高高原駅よりお車で15分

Contains advertising · Property data by Rakuten Travel (Supported by Rakuten Developers)

Stay nearby

19 places within 12 km of the slopes. Most of them do not take online bookings — open the map for contact details.

17 Hotel 2 Guest house

Nearest: 2.4 km

Nearest first

Accommodation data: OpenStreetMap

More places to look

What we have measured at Myoko Suginohara

  • The Cheapest Way to Buy Lift Tickets in Japan: Joint Passes, Hour Tickets and the Break-Even Maths A Rusutsu day ticket is ¥3,500 cheaper online than at the window. A Hakuba Valley day pass costs ¥77 per pisted kilometre; Mt. Naeba costs ¥185. Myoko Suginohara's season pass pays for itself in 8.9 days, Niseko's in 13.7. And the new hour tickets are a good deal only if you ski short days — we did the arithmetic for all of it.
  • 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.
  • A Singapore Fund Is Spending ¥200 Billion on Myoko. We Measured What It Bought. Patience Capital Group bought Madarao in 2022 and Myoko Suginohara in 2023, and will spend about ¥200 billion over ten years building Japan's Aspen. The snow record says it picked the right valley: Madarao is 129th in the world and Seki Onsen, 13 km away, is 19th, while Niseko is 526th. The catch is rain.
  • Japan Is Sold on Powder. Measured, It Is the Easiest Big Ski Country to Learn In. Half of Japan's pisted kilometres are graded easy or novice — against 24% in the United States and 28% in Canada. And 255 of Japan's 397 ski areas have a natural hot-spring source within 5 km. Here are the numbers, the caveat about grading, and the resorts where a first-timer gets the most of both.
  • Myoko's Eleven Ski Areas: Which One to Choose Eleven ski areas sit within 16 km of Akakura. Measured over twelve winters, Seki Onsen gets 689 cm and Myoko Suginohara 357 cm — and Seki is the only one of the eleven in Japan's top 50 for both how much snow falls and what that snow is like. Here is what each one actually offers.
  • Nozawa Onsen: How Much Snow, Where to Soak and How to Get There 450 cm a season, =108th of the 3,069 ski areas we measure. Not one ski area in Austria, Switzerland or Italy gets more, and only two in France do. Thirteen free public bathhouses, 36 places to stay, and three hours from Tokyo.

Updated: 8 Oct 2026, 00:52

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