Japan Ski Resorts
With so many amazing Japan ski resorts to choose from you can’t really go wrong. But Suginohara in Myoko is one of our favourites. With super long cruisy groomers, some epic tree skiing, fun side country and an epic terrain park. Suginohara Ski Resort boasts to have the longest run in Japan at 8.5km. On a good day, you can see all the way to Mt Fuji a good spot for a photo is from the top of the gondola.
The little village at the base of the Suginohara Ski Resort is called Suginosawa Onsen, and there are no towering hotels and it’s retained its Japanese flavour. English isn’t widely spoken, although this is changing with the ever-increasing popularity of Myoko.
Summary of Myoko Suginohara
- Long groomed wide runs and ideal for intermediates and Families.
- The lift infrastructure is good.
- Like the other main Myoko ski areas, it receives a lot of snow.
- Suginohara has fantastic side country and also provides some fun tree skiing inside the resort boundaries.
- On clear days, the ski area affords lovely views of the lakes and the valley.
- It’s generally quiet midweek and easy enough to find freshies, although the popularity of Myoko Kogen is increasing.
Suginohara Ski and Snowboard Terrain
Suginohara is medium sized for a Japanese ski resort, and it’s long and skinny with a big vertical drop of 1,124 metres (731-1,855m). Suginohara has 5 primary lifts, but the lift infrastructure is pretty good – it includes a modern gondola and two hooded fast quad chairs for protection from the elements.
The Sugi terrain park is really good spread out over 1km with 30 to 40 fun features to hit with plenty of super fun beginner to intermediate side hits and easy rails. They have a hooded high-speed detachable lift that covers the whole park so you can lap the park easily. We spend a lot of our days on our snowboard camp training at the sugi park for its good variety of progressive features and nice flow to the park.
Suginohara has some enjoyable off-piste skiing and riding in the trees, off the top lift. Suginohara has some amazing lift-accessed side-country that includes cliff drops, steep trees, and open mellow trees. It can be avalanche prone so only head in there with the appropriate, avi gear a buddy or two, and backcountry know-how.
If you’re willing to earn your turns, Suginohara offers access above the resort to some phenomenal Mt Myoko backcountry terrain. You’ll absolutely want to keep an eye on the avalanche forecasts and potentially want a guide.Suginohara Snow
Suginohara scores a lot of snow 13 metres on average per season. The top of the resort typically has great snow quality during winter thanks to its high elevation. Sugi is the real “highlands” of Myoko Kogen (ie Myoko Highlands), being about 350 metres higher than Akakura Kanko’s top elevation and more than 600 metres higher than Akakura Onsen and Seki Onsen.
