Sado Daira Ski Resort is a ski area in Niigata, Japan, on slopes between roughly 331 and 386 m. Its mapped area is about 0.4 km across, with 3 marked runs and 1 lift (about 0.5 km of piste in all).
Over the last twelve winters the ERA5 weather model gives it 148 cm of snowfall a season, 320th of the 397 ski areas we measure in Japan. It swings a lot from year to year: the biggest winter, 2017/18 (231 cm), brought more than 3 times as much as the leanest, 2015/16 (75 cm). January is usually the snowiest month, with about 57 cm. Snowfall days average −0.2 °C at mid-mountain, close to freezing, so the snow is often heavy, and its snow-quality score ranks 380th 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.
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.
When it falls, and how winters differ
Month by month
Month by month, the most snow falls in January. March brings 26% of January’s snowfall. That is a steeper fall than the median for ski areas in Japan (52%): the snow here is concentrated early in the season. In amount, March brings 15 cm, less than the median of 46 cm.
Winter by winter
Across the 12 winters measured, the average is 148 cm, and 5 of them fell short of it. The leanest was 2015/16 with 75 cm; the biggest was 2017/18 with 231 cm (3.1 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
73% 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
- 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.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Lake Kamo加茂湖 | Nature | 6.9 km |
| Sotokaifu Coast外海府海岸 | Nature | 8.6 km |
| 佐渡金山 | Mountain | 9 km |
| Kitazawa Flotation Plant北沢浮遊選鉱場 | Landmark | 10.6 km |
| Sado bugyō佐渡奉行 | Historic site | 10.8 km |
| Obata Sake Brewery尾畑酒造 | Landmark | 12.6 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
1 properties on Rakuten Travel lie within 3 km of this ski area, listed cheapest first.
| Property | From | Rating | Distance | Getting there |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 民宿 桃華園 ＜佐渡島＞ | ¥6,650 | 4.78 100 reviews | 3.2 km | ■車：両津港から車で20分 ■バス：「運動公園前」バス停より車で5分(徒歩30分) |
Contains advertising · Property data by Rakuten Travel (Supported by Rakuten Developers)
Stay nearby
20 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 Niigata
- Which Ski Resort Gets the Most Snow in the World? We measured snowfall at all 3,069 ski areas on earth the same way. The top two both shut in winter because they get too much snow: a Norwegian glacier at 783 cm that opens in May, and Okutadami Maruyama in Niigata at 765 cm. 46 of the top 100 are Japanese.
- How Japan's Early-Bird Lift Tickets Work: At Hakuba Happo-One, Eight of the Nine Need a Japanese ID Card Hakuba Happo-One opened early-bird sales at 10:00 on 1 October. A day costs ¥6,400 against ¥9,800 at the window, 35% off. But every ticket on the list except one needs a My Number Card and a Japanese phone app. A visitor from abroad can buy exactly one of them, at 15% off.
- 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.
Updated: 8 Oct 2026, 00:52