GALA Yuzawa Overview
GALA湯沢GALA Yuzawa is a JR East-operated snow resort in Yuzawa, Niigata, whose Cheers base station connects directly to its own Shinkansen station about 77 minutes from Tokyo. The Cheers Express gondola serves roughly 16 courses across three areas between 358 m and 1,181 m, with a season running from late December to early May.
Resort Location
Location of the resort on the map of Japan.
Resort highlights
- Access
- Gondola access Terrain park
- Snow
- Reliable powder
- Onsen
- Open-air onsen Family onsen Ryokan stays Onsen nearby
- Season
- Long season Late closer
Snow Report
Snow Report →Average peak depth and the month it arrives, over every recorded season.
Typical base at the deepest half-month.
MeasuredClear skies
The share of a typical winter that is clear here, and the months the clear days fall in.
They lean late: close to half of them arrive in March. Across the 34 resorts tracked here, a typical winter holds between 2 and 11 clear days.
Checked against sunshine measured at Yuzawa. The same station validates Kandatsu Snow Resort, Maiko Snow Resort and Naeba Ski Resort. This resort reads the same weather cell as Kandatsu Snow Resort.
How a winter day is classified
Winter runs from December 1 to March 31. A day counts as Clear when modelled cloud cover is 30% or less, Partly Cloudy from 31 to 79%, and Overcast from 80% up. A day with 5 cm or more of snowfall counts as Snow, whatever the cloud cover.
Cloud cover comes from the ERA5 reanalysis for the weather cell this resort sits in. It is checked against hours of sunshine measured at the nearest reporting station, lower down the valley.
The modelled cloud is compared with the station’s measured sunshine on the 3,243 winter days that have both. When the two agree poorly, the clear-day figure is given as a range instead of a single count.
The classification describes cloud over the resort’s weather cell, but nobody measures visibility on the hill. A cell that reads clear can still leave the upper mountain in cloud all day.
Mountain
Mountain →The spread from this mountain’s gentlest run to its steepest, ranked against the other mountains with pitch data.
Its runs range from 5.3° to 18.4°.
EstimatedLifts
Every active lift, ranked by the riders it carries uphill in an hour.
10 active lifts carrying skiers uphill.
EstimatedRiders per hour (estimated)
Lift Tickets
Lift Tickets →The cost of an hour on the hill, for every ticket length.
Cheapest cost per hour among the compared passes.
MeasuredGetting Here
Getting Here →One recommended public-transport route from each gateway city.
2 gateway cities with a confirmed public route.
Measured- Tokyo → Gala-Yuzawa Station (direct Shinkansen): board:Tokyo Station — Tokyo Station — (Joetsu Shinkansen, 95 min) — Gala-Yuzawa Station
- Monorail + Joetsu Shinkansen (via Haneda): Tokyo Haneda Airport — (Tokyo Monorail, 15 min) — Hamamatsucho — (Yamanote Line, 7 min) — Tokyo Station — (Joetsu Shinkansen, 95 min) — Gala-Yuzawa Station
Videos
Videos →Riders’ own words from their videos, each with its timestamp.
6 rider clips from confirmed videos.
Creator-sourced-
“We have just discovered that the northern area is actually open and we came down in one and we originally were going to try and do in two or in three, but it was a bit lumpy and bumpy, so we thought well, we'll stick to in one. And so we've done in one, which is a nice chill slope”
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“so I'm just at the top of the resort again I'm going to do one more tops of bottom run I'll head down the Falcon Run and then I'll get back on the train and head back to Tokyo”
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“we went down N1 or n one the red slope we're going to go down the green slope now a little bit little more mellow but a bit longer this one's really fun I really like it”
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“ここのグルノーブルのコースは最大シャドが23°で距離が700mというコースなんですが、今下から見てもらって分かるように結構シャド感があって1枚バーになってるのですごく気持ちカービングターンができるコースでとってもお気に入りのコースなんです。そしてガーラの中で言うと山頂のコースになりますので上からの景色もすごくいいコースになってます。”
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“さて僕の一番のおすすめ下山コースのファルコンになりますただ所々急斜面があるので初心者の方は行かないようにという注意書きが至る所にありましたリキッド下山コースということでみんな頑張って下山しようとするんですがそれで苦労する初心者が多いみたいです初心初級の方はゴンドラでの下山をおすすめしています”
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“続いてじ事コースの様子になります。こちらもバ状況は問題ないですね。積節不足で直前まで様子みとのことで本当にオープンするのか不安でしたが朝一のコースでは特に問題なく土が出てる部分などありませんでした。昼前ちょっと土が出てるところあったけど特に滑には支障がない感じでしたね。”