【札幌国際】札幌観測史上1位の大雪DAYでパウダー祭り!(2026.1.8 スノーボード)
By: HAYATE OutdoorLife · 2026-01-11
Sapporo Kokusai Skiing Resort is a ski area in Hokkaido, Japan, on slopes between roughly 719 and 1,055 m. Its mapped area is about 2.5 km across, with 20 marked runs and 4 lifts (about 12 km of piste in all).
Over the last twelve winters the ERA5 weather model gives it 331 cm of snowfall a season, 126th 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 −7.8 °C at mid-mountain, and its snow-quality score ranks 25th of 397 in Japan.
The nearest city of any size is Sapporo, about 22 km away. Below are links to 2 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
10.6℃
Max wind
27.2km/h
Elevation (est.)
719–1055m
Across
2.5km
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
331 cm
per season
Worst of 12 winters
209 cm
A typical winter: 324 cm. The best: 442 cm.
World rank
351
of 3,069 worldwide
Rank in country
126
of 397 in Japan
Elevation rank
166
Highest to lowest, of 397 in Japan. The centre point sits at 849 m, 83 m above the national median.
Quality rank
25
of 397 in Japan
Temp when snowing
-7.8°C
Japanese median: -3.5°C
Rain days
6%
Japanese median: 16%
Days over 5 cm
17%
Japanese median: 15%
Wind when snowing
19 km/h
Dryness 0.70
Frequency 0.49
Freedom from rain 0.84
Calm when snowing 0.95
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kiroro Resort | 6.4 km | 331 cm | 351 |
| Asarigawa Onsen Ski Resort | 8.1 km | 293 cm | 507 |
| Snowcruse ONZE | 9.2 km | 277 cm | 586 |
| Sapporo Teine | 11 km | 260 cm | 667 |
| Otaru Tenguyama Ski Area | 14 km | 293 cm | 507 |
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.
86cmDec
96cmJan
81cmFeb
69cmMar
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.
209
442
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
20
Run length
12km
Lifts
4
Vertical
468m
Top 1,089 m · base 620 m
Run map
EasyIntermediateAdvancedOther Lift
The shape of the mountain
Longest run on the map2.1 km
Steepest pitch29°measured over at least 30 m
Average gradient of the runs10.1°
Which way the slopes face
North 17%
East 67%
South 16%
West 1%
84% 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 7
Intermediate 9
Advanced 2
Other 2
Lift types
- Chairlift3
- 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
On the mountainWatch live ↗Operated by: 札幌国際スキー場Roads nearby国道393号 ↗From the resort: 6.5 kmOperated by: 北海道開発局
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 →
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.
Official YouTube channel
More than we show here.
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 | 7.1 km |
| Mount Teine手稲山 | Mountain | 9.9 km |
| Jōzankei Dam定山渓ダム | Nature | 12.1 km |
| Jōzankei Onsen定山渓温泉 | Hot spring town | 14.2 km |
| Otaru Museum小樽市総合博物館 | Museum | 16.4 km |
| Hokkaidō Jingū北海道神宮 | Shrine | 19.4 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: 43.0730, 141.0703
Places to stay nearby
4 properties on Rakuten Travel lie within 3 km of this ski area, listed cheapest first.
| Property | From | Rating | Distance | Getting there |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 朝里川温泉ホテル | ¥5,850 | 4.04 157 reviews | 8.0 km | 小樽築港駅より路線バスで20分。お車にて約15分。 |
| Ｙｕ Ｋｉｒｏｒｏ（ユキロロ） | ¥12,253 | 4.56 18 reviews | 6.9 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 | — | 7.1 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 | — | — | 6.6 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)
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.
Related resort · Snow & Mountain Resort News
Updated: 8 Oct 2026, 00:52