🇯🇵 Japan · Nagano

Shiga Kogen Kumanoyu Ski Area

志賀高原 熊の湯スキー場
Off season Official site

Shiga Kogen Kumanoyu Ski Area is a ski area in Nagano, Japan, on slopes between roughly 1,695 and 1,880 m. Its mapped area is about 1.9 km across, with 17 marked runs and 5 lifts (about 6.6 km of piste in all).

Over the last twelve winters the ERA5 weather model gives it 333 cm of snowfall a season, 117th of the 397 ski areas we measure in Japan. It swings a lot from year to year: the biggest winter, 2016/17 (434 cm), brought more than twice as much as the leanest, 2015/16 (214 cm). January is usually the snowiest month, with about 104 cm. Snowfall days are cold, averaging −8.9 °C at mid-mountain, and its snow-quality score ranks 14th of 397 in Japan.

The nearest city of any size is Nagano, about 29 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
8.5℃
Max wind
9.4km/h
Elevation (est.)
1695–1880m
Across
1.9km

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
333 cm
per season
Worst of 12 winters
214 cm
A typical winter: 329 cm. The best: 434 cm.
World rank
333
of 3,069 worldwide
Rank in country
117
of 397 in Japan
Elevation rank
9
Highest to lowest, of 397 in Japan. The centre point sits at 1,786 m, 1,020 m above the national median.
Quality rank
14
of 397 in Japan
Temp when snowing
-8.9°C
Japanese median: -3.5°C
Rain days
8%
Japanese median: 16%
Days over 5 cm
20%
Japanese median: 15%
Wind when snowing
20 km/h
Dryness 0.78
Frequency 0.56
Freedom from rain 0.79
Calm when snowing 0.94

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
Shiga Kogen Yokoteyama Ski Area1.4 km333 cm333
YAMABOKU Wild Snow Park3.0 km255 cm692
Shiga Kogen Shibutoge Ski Area3.0 km333 cm333
Manza Onsen4.2 km255 cm692
Shiga Kogen4.3 km255 cm692

When it falls, and how winters differ

Month by month

Month by month, the most snow falls in January. March brings 66% 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.

85cm
Dec
104cm
Jan
75cm
Feb
69cm
Mar
Average snowfall by month, last 12 winters

Winter by winter

Across the 12 winters measured, the average is 333 cm, and 6 of them fell short of it. The leanest was 2015/16 with 214 cm; the biggest was 2016/17 with 434 cm (2.0 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.

214
434
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
17
Run length
6.6km
Lifts
5
Vertical
272m
Top 1,952 m · base 1,680 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 map0.8 km
Steepest pitch28°measured over at least 30 m
Average gradient of the runs13.1°

Which way the slopes face

North 65%
East 27%
South 1%
West 8%

92% 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 5
Intermediate 6
Advanced 6

Lift types

  • Chairlift5

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.

Hot springs nearby, as analysed

8 hot spring sources with published analyses lie within 5 km of this ski area, nearest first (the hottest is 96.2 °C).

SourceDistanceTemperaturepHTypeAnalysed
硯川0.7 km68℃ hot—sulphur—
熊の湯0.7 km46.2℃ hot6.4 neutral——
木戸池木戸池1号2.3 km42.3℃ hot7.2 neutralsimple—
七味高山村2.9 km96.2℃ hot8.3 mildly alkaline——
奥山田奥山田3.7 km67.5℃ hot7.3 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.

PlaceTypeDistance
Shiga Highlands志賀高原Nature3.2 km
Shibu-tōge渋峠Nature3.6 km
Mount Kusatsu-Shirane草津白根山Nature4.6 km
Manza Onsen万座温泉Hot spring town4.7 km
Jigokudani Monkey Park地獄谷野猿公苑Park6.8 km
Kusatsu Onsen草津温泉Hot spring town10.8 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

16 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
志賀高原 ホテル一望閣¥6,8003.68 283 reviews0.7 km上信越道信州中野ICより国道292号線にて45分。JR長野駅より急行バス80分又は長電特急電車50分&バス利用45分。
横手・山本荘¥6,8003.91 41 reviews1.1 kmJR 長野駅よりバスで90分 硯川バス停より車で5分/長野電鉄 湯田中駅よりバスで50分 硯川バス停より車で5分
志賀高原 癒しの宿幸の湯¥6,9404.50 16 reviews1.9 kmJR長野駅より志賀高原行き直通バスで約70分。上信越自動車道・信州中野ICより約40分
ほたる温泉 ホテルハイツ¥7,4253.91 46 reviews0.7 km上信越自動車道信州中野ICより約28Km約40分。JR長野駅より志賀高原行バスで70分
Hotel & Onsen 2307 Shigakogen¥7,6003.75 153 reviews0.7 km中野ICより車で45分。湯田中駅よりバスにて45分。硯川バス停下車1分徒歩。
志賀パレスホテル¥8,2503.48 281 reviews0.8 km長野電鉄湯田中駅 / 湯田中より長電バスにて50分
ニュー横手¥8,2505.00 17 reviews1.0 km長野電鉄「湯田中駅」から路線バスで約50分。陽坂バス停より徒歩約5分。
志賀高原ロッヂ¥8,6004.33 58 reviews0.6 km湯田中駅からバスで45分ほたる温泉下車徒歩5分。信州中野ICから車で約40分。
石の湯温泉 石の湯ロッジ¥8,8604.00 105 reviews2.5 km車:長野道信州中野ICより40分 電車:長野電鉄湯田中駅 ※ナビは電話番号検索かGoogleMAPをご利用ください
木戸池温泉ホテル¥8,9003.33 154 reviews2.3 kmJR 長野駅より長野電鉄線に乗換え湯田中駅下車、硯川・熊の湯行のバス乗車にて30分、木戸池バス停下車0分
志賀高原熊の湯・硯川温泉 にごり湯の宿硯川ホテル¥10,0003.83 491 reviews0.8 km長野電鉄線 湯田中駅下車 バス40分/上信越自動車道信州中野IC 国道292号経由30分
志賀リバーサイドホテル¥11,0003.17 40 reviews0.6 km湯田中駅から志賀高原行きバスで60分
Show the other 4
PropertyFromRatingDistanceGetting there
ホテル大六¥12,700—2.1 km湯田中駅よりバスで50分
ポイントホープやまゆう¥13,000—1.5 km長野電鉄湯田中駅 バス約50分
熊の湯温泉 熊の湯ホテル¥13,6004.15 252 reviews0.7 km私鉄長野電鉄湯田中駅下車 長電バス熊の湯硯川行 熊の湯下車0分/上信越自動車道信州中野IC下車R292号線経由約30km
ホテル ラ・フォーレ志賀—4.59 171 reviews1.2 km上信越自動車道・信州中野ICより車にて30分、JR長野駅から長野電鉄線志賀高原行きバスにて70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.

1 Hotel

Nearest: 0.8 km

Nearest first

Accommodation data: OpenStreetMap

More places to look

What we have measured at Shiga Kogen Kumanoyu Ski Area

  • 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

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