Urabandai Ski Resort is a ski area in Fukushima, Japan, on slopes between roughly 884 and 1,134 m. Its mapped area is about 1.4 km across, with 3 marked runs and 3 lifts (about 2.6 km of piste in all).
Over the last twelve winters the ERA5 weather model gives it 347 cm of snowfall a season, 108th of the 397 ski areas we measure in Japan. Its winters are fairly steady; even the leanest, 2015/16 (235 cm), reached 68% of the average. January is usually the snowiest month, with about 114 cm. Snowfall days average −5.4 °C at mid-mountain, and its snow-quality score ranks 67th of 397 in Japan.
The nearest city of any size is Koriyama, about 37 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.
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.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nekoma Mountain | 3.1 km | 347 cm | 289 |
| グランドサンピア猪苗代リゾートスキー場 | 4.9 km | 325 cm | 383 |
| Family Snow Park Bandai X2 | 5.5 km | 258 cm | 673 |
| Inawashiro Snow Paradise | 5.6 km | 258 cm | 673 |
| Grandeco Snow Resort | 10 km | 379 cm | 206 |
When it falls, and how winters differ
Month by month
Month by month, the most snow falls in January. March brings 54% of January’s snowfall. That is in line with the median for ski areas in Japan (52%). In amount, March brings 62 cm, more than the median of 46 cm.
Winter by winter
Across the 12 winters measured, the average is 347 cm, and 7 of them fell short of it. The leanest was 2015/16 with 235 cm; the biggest was 2024/25 with 454 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.
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
99% 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
- Chairlift3
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
This ski area does not put a camera on its own slopes. What follows are nearby cameras, not the pistes themselves.
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.
Some cameras here are provided by Windy.com. Footage plays in Windy’s own player; we do not store it. Windy.com
Bandai and Inawashiro webcams & snow report — all 8 ski areas →
Hot springs nearby, as analysed
4 hot spring sources with published analyses lie within 5 km of this ski area, nearest first (the hottest is 55.1 °C).
| Source | Distance | Temperature | pH | Type | Analysed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 磐梯中の湯 | 1.8 km | 55.1℃ hot | 3.6 mildly acidic | simple | — |
| 土湯沢土湯沢山小屋 | 2.6 km | 43℃ hot | 6.8 neutral | — | — |
| 川上湯沼第1 | 3.1 km | 37.8℃ warm | 5.9 mildly acidic | — | — |
| 磐惣ばんだい上尾荘 | 3.6 km | 50.3℃ hot | 8 mildly alkaline | — | — |
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.
| Place | Type | Distance |
|---|---|---|
| Goshiki-numa五色沼 (北塩原村) | Nature | 2.8 km |
| Mount Bandai磐梯山 | Mountain | 3.1 km |
| Bandai Highlands磐梯高原 | Mountain | 3.3 km |
| Morohashi Museum of Modern Art諸橋近代美術館 | Museum | 3.7 km |
| Lake Hibara桧原湖 | Nature | 5.3 km |
| Lake Inawashiro猪苗代湖 | Nature | 16.4 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 ↗Places to stay nearby
7 properties on Rakuten Travel lie within 3 km of this ski area, listed cheapest first.
| Property | From | Rating | Distance | Getting there |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 秋元屋旅館 | ¥9,350 | 4.33 18 reviews | 3.9 km | 東北本線郡山駅・磐越西線猪苗代駅・バスで秋元湖入口から徒歩５分 |
| 裏磐梯レイクリゾート 迎賓館 猫魔離宮（旧：裏磐梯猫魔ホテル） | ¥10,300 | 4.54 821 reviews | 2.5 km | ＪＲ猪苗代駅より車で約30分（無料送迎バス有）。猪苗代磐梯高原ICより車で約25分。 |
| 裏磐梯レイクリゾート 本館 五色の森（旧：裏磐梯猫魔ホテル） | ¥10,800 | 4.24 2120 reviews | 2.5 km | ＪＲ猪苗代駅より車で約30分（無料送迎バス有）。猪苗代磐梯高原ICより車で約25分。 |
| ホテリ・アアルト | ¥24,500 | 4.88 45 reviews | 3.6 km | 郡山駅から磐越西線で猪苗代駅下車 送迎車で約20分 |
| 裏磐梯高原ホテル | ¥30,000 | 4.80 196 reviews | 2.3 km | ＪＲ猪苗代駅下車／磐越自動車道 猪苗代磐梯高原ＩＣより約25分 |
| 第一ゴールドハウス目黒 | — | — | 2.7 km | 猪苗代駅からお車で２０分 |
| ホテル五色荘 | — | — | 3.4 km | 「ＪＲ猪苗代駅」よりタクシーで20分、バスで25分｢五色沼入口｣下車。磐越道「猪苗代磐梯高原I.C.」より車で20分。 |
Contains advertising · Property data by Rakuten Travel (Supported by Rakuten Developers)
Stay nearby
13 places within 12 km of the slopes. Most of them do not take online bookings — open the map for contact details.
Nearest: 2.3 km
Nearest first
- 楓 Guest house 3.5 km
- イル レガーロ Hotel 3.7 km
- FRASER HOTEL Hotel 3.7 km
- プチホテルドリーム磐梯 Hotel 3.9 km
- 四季 Guest house 3.9 km
- 裏磐梯国民宿舎 Hostel 4 km
Accommodation data: OpenStreetMap
More places to look
Guides covering Fukushima
- 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.
- Tengendai Kogen: Some of Japan's Best Snow Quality, and No Live Camera Snow falls at −7.8 °C, rain arrives on 12% of winter days, and the top station is at 1,860 m. Eight places to stay, and no live camera of its own.
Updated: 8 Oct 2026, 00:52