Nozawa Onsen Snow Resort Overview
野沢温泉スキー場Nozawa Onsen opened in 1924 in the mountains of northern Nagano and is one of Japan's oldest ski resorts. Its 36 courses span a 1,085-metre vertical drop across 297 hectares, and it receives 11–14 metres of snowfall per season, among the heaviest in Honshu. The resort and the traditional onsen village below are one place. The village has 13 free public hot spring baths and holds the 850-year-old Dosojin Fire Festival, a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage, and it draws people well beyond the skiing.
Resort Location
Location of the resort on the map of Japan.
Resort highlights
- Access
- Night skiing Gondola access Terrain park
- Snow
- Reliable powder
- Terrain
- Big vertical High alpine Steep terrain
- Onsen
- Open-air onsen Family onsen Ryokan stays Onsen nearby
- Season
- Long season Early opener 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 Nozawa Onsen.
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 3,001 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 2.0° to 26.4°.
EstimatedLifts
Every active lift, ranked by the riders it carries uphill in an hour.
16 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.
MeasuredNight skiing
The resort keeps some lifts running after dark and lights the runs they reach.
Night season Dec 27 to Mar 21. published by the resort source
On these dates
Dec 31
New Year's Eve: night skiing extended to 23:30, with fireworks at midnight (the resort's event page: 「12月31日のナイターを23：30まで延長営業！」)
Hours 16:30 to 23:30 published by the resort source
Lifts closed at night The resort publishes no list of lifts closed at night. source
Buying a ticket The resort publishes no night ticket sale time or place.
Proof to bring The resort publishes no proof requirement.
On these dates
Jan 11, Feb 22, Mar 20
Extra night-skiing days the resort lists (「※1月11日(日)・2月22日(日)・3月20日(金)も営業」); it gives no reason. Each falls on or just before a public holiday: 12 Jan Coming of Age Day, 23 Feb Emperor's Birthday, 20 Mar Vernal Equinox Day — our reading, not the resort's words
Hours 16:30 to 20:00 published by the resort source
Lifts closed at night The resort publishes no list of lifts closed at night. source
Buying a ticket The resort publishes no night ticket sale time or place.
Proof to bring The resort publishes no proof requirement.
2026年1月10日(土)～3月21日(土)の毎週土曜日
The resort’s own wording.
Hours 16:30 to 20:00 published by the resort source
Lifts closed at night The resort publishes no list of lifts closed at night. source
Buying a ticket The resort publishes no night ticket sale time or place.
Proof to bring The resort publishes no proof requirement.
Year-end and New Year
2025年12月27日(土)～2026年1月3日(土)の年末年始
Hours 16:30 to 20:00 published by the resort source
Lifts closed at night The resort publishes no list of lifts closed at night. source
Buying a ticket The resort publishes no night ticket sale time or place.
Proof to bring The resort publishes no proof requirement.
Night ticket Lift Tickets →
The resort publishes no night page. These pages were read instead: source 1source 2source 3source 4source 5source 6
Getting Here
Getting Here →One recommended public-transport route from each gateway city.
3 gateway cities with a confirmed public route.
Measured- Tokyo → Iiyama (Shinkansen) + Nozawa Onsen Liner: board:Tokyo Station — Tokyo Station — (Hokuriku Shinkansen (Hakutaka), 105 min) — Iiyama Station — (Nozawa Onsen Liner, 25 min) — Nozawa Onsen
- Shinkansen + bus (via Haneda / Tokyo): Tokyo Haneda Airport — (東京單軌列車, 15 min) — Hamamatsucho — (山手線, 10 min) — Tokyo Station — (北陸新幹線, 110 min) — Iiyama Station — (Nozawa Onsen Kotsu, 25 min) — Nozawa Onsen Chuo Terminal
- Airport bus + Shinkansen + bus (via Toyama): Toyama Airport — (Toyama Chihou Railway, 23 min) — Toyama Station — (北陸新幹線, 68 min) — Iiyama Station — (Nozawa Onsen Kotsu, 25 min) — Nozawa Onsen Chuo Terminal
Videos
Videos →Riders’ own words from their videos, each with its timestamp.
6 rider clips from confirmed videos.
Creator-sourced-
“We start our day here. Uenotaira. Do you like the chairlifts here? They have bubbles over them. To shield you from the weather. Let's just take the chair up, and then we'll ski back down and go all the way. It's the longest run in Japan. Ten kilometer run.”
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“I recommend when you get to the gondola get on it ride it all the way to the end station at Yamabiko and then from there you've got access to the whole mountain skyline a beautiful ridgeline run all the way back down to the bottom of Karasawa.”
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“konichiwa kimono wearers, this is Skyline on a bluebird day, this may well be the best run at Nozawa Onsen. head up the Nagasaka gondola then Skyline link pair to get to Skyline, which is 3.5ks down the ridge line. Starts red, ends black.”
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“A good portion of the food and beverage options are at mid mountain along Paradise Trail or at the top of each of the gondolas. The individual options along Paradise like Hakuin and Popey give great choices for groups.”
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“The most famous SKYLINE It's all on the ridgeline of the mountain a snow track So look down on this landscape beautiful enough If you are climbing a mountain, you will know The scenery on the ridge is very beautiful”
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“Hop on the state-of-the-art Nagasaka Gondola (rebuilt in 2020) for panoramic mountain views and quick slope access. In spring, natural pipes form on the Nagasaka ski slope, making it exciting and fun.”