Yashima Ski Area is a ski area in Akita, Japan, on slopes between roughly 468 and 691 m. Its mapped area is about 1.3 km across, with 6 marked runs and 2 lifts (about 5.2 km of piste in all).
Over the last twelve winters the ERA5 weather model gives it 467 cm of snowfall a season, 47th of the 397 ski areas we measure in Japan. It swings a lot from year to year: the biggest winter, 2017/18 (686 cm), brought more than 3 times as much as the leanest, 2015/16 (183 cm). January is usually the snowiest month, with about 158 cm. Snowfall days average −2.4 °C at mid-mountain, and its snow-quality score ranks 170th of 397 in Japan.
The nearest city of any size is Akita, about 58 km away. Below is a link to its official live camera.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gionyama Ski Area | 20 km | 321 cm | 401 |
| Inakawa Ski Area Suberotta | 39 km | 229 cm | 885 |
| Green Valley Kamuro Ski Area | 40 km | 277 cm | 586 |
| Omagari Family Ski Area | 41 km | 202 cm | 1135 |
| Gosannen Ski Area | 44 km | 230 cm | 877 |
When it falls, and how winters differ
Month by month
Month by month, the most snow falls in January. March brings 39% 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. For skiing, though, the amount matters more than the share: March brings 62 cm, more than the median of 46 cm.
Winter by winter
Across the 12 winters measured, the average is 467 cm, and 4 of them fell short of it. The leanest was 2015/16 with 183 cm; the biggest was 2017/18 with 686 cm (3.7 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
98% 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
- Chairlift2
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. The nearest live view is the road below.
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
2 hot spring sources with published analyses lie within 5 km of this ski area, nearest first (the hottest is 47.5 °C).
| Source | Distance | Temperature | pH | Type | Analysed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 湯の沢 | 4.3 km | 15.5℃ cold | 7.6 mildly alkaline | simple | — |
| 猿倉鳥海荘 | 4.6 km | 47.5℃ hot | 8.5 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Sarukura Onsen猿倉温泉 (由利本荘市) | Hot spring town | 4.6 km |
| Mount Chōkai鳥海山 | Mountain | 10.4 km |
| Hottai Falls法体の滝 | Nature | 11 km |
| Naso no Shirataki奈曽の白滝 | Nature | 12.4 km |
| Kisakata象潟 | Nature | 15.8 km |
| Shirase Antaractic Expedition Memorial Museum白瀬南極探検隊記念館 | Museum | 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.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 鳥海 猿倉温泉 ホテルフォレスタ鳥海 | ¥7,150 | 4.21 485 reviews | 3.2 km | 秋田自動車道 本荘ICより車で約１時間/「鳥海山ろく線：矢島駅」から事前予約で無料送迎あり。 |
Contains advertising · Property data by Rakuten Travel (Supported by Rakuten Developers)
Stay nearby
7 places within 12 km of the slopes. Most of them do not take online bookings — open the map for contact details.
Nearest: 3.1 km
Nearest first
- Foresta Chokai Hotel 3.1 km
- Hotel Masaka Hotel 4.4 km
- Chokaiso Hotel 4.6 km
- 錦旅館 Hotel 6.1 km
- ペンション鳥海 Hotel 6.1 km
- 三舩旅館 Hotel 6.2 km
Accommodation data: OpenStreetMap
More places to look
What we have measured at Yashima Ski Area
- Taketsuru Picked Yoichi Because It Was Like Scotland. Only the Annual Average Agrees. Japanese whisky began with an argument about climate. We measured ten distilleries in Japan and Scotland over ten years: Yoichi's annual mean matches Islay to within 0.1°C, and its seasons swing nearly three times as hard.
Updated: 8 Oct 2026, 00:52