The forest
What grows on Rusutsu Resort
Mostly deciduous: broadleaf woods and larch. They stand bare through the winter, so you can see a long way into them.
Read from the national vegetation survey. The survey records the cut pistes as open ground, so the ski area shows up on its own.
Where this mountain sits among the others on JapowDB
Its forest stands barer in winter than 33 of the 40 mountains on JapowDB.
01
Sight range, level by level
This is the mountain seen from the side. How far you can see into the trees changes with height.
| Height | What you can see through | Bare |
|---|---|---|
| 1,022–1,106 m | | 100% |
| 937–1,021 m | | 100% |
| 853–937 m | | 96% |
| 769–853 m | | 99% |
| 685–769 m | | 95% |
| 601–685 m | | 81% |
| 517–601 m | | 84% |
| 433–517 m | | 89% |
| 349–433 m | | 92% |
| 265–349 m | | 96% |
Each reading is a share of that band's own forest, not of the mountain, and a band holding too little forest to state one is left blank. The pale bar behind the section is how much ground sits at that height, so a swing over a sliver of mountain does not read as a headline. No treeline is drawn — the survey describes stands, not a line.
02
What stands beside each run
Each run is scored on the band 35 to 90 m either side of its centre line, which is the forest you look at from the piste. Runs are ordered by how much of that band you can see through in winter.
| Run | The band either side | See-through |
|---|---|---|
| Heavenly Ridge B 964 m | 77% | |
| Steamboat-B 1,929 m | 77% | |
| Heavenly Ridge A 1,226 m | 77% | |
| Isola-B 676 m | 76% | |
| Heavenly Canyon 1,468 m | 75% | |
| Isola-C 600 m | 73% | |
| Furikozawa 2,204 m | 73% | |
| Isola Grand Bypass 708 m | 72% |
The other 29 runs
| Run | The band either side | See-through |
|---|---|---|
| Hevenly View 2,601 m | 67% | |
| Steamboat-A 1,930 m | 66% | |
| Isola Grand 3,001 m | 65% | |
| Super East 380 m | 65% | |
| Heavenly Spirit 507 m | 64% | |
| Tiger 579 m | 63% | |
| Rusutsu No.1 439 m | 63% | |
| Isola-A 741 m | 60% | |
| Across A 217 m | 59% | |
| East Tignes 1,757 m | 59% | |
| Isola Top Bypass 273 m | 52% | |
| Heavenly Trail 708 m | 52% | |
| East Vivaldi 2,045 m | 48% | |
| Tree Run 640 m | 47% | |
| Family 676 m | 45% | |
| Fuboru 1,690 m | 44% | |
| Bambi 857 m | 43% | |
| Eva 713 m | 42% | |
| Natural 466 m | 42% | |
| Elite 639 m | 42% | |
| Giant 1,127 m | 41% | |
| Dynamic 491 m | 41% | |
| White Lover 714 m | 39% | |
| Joint 298 m | 38% | |
| Across B 152 m | 35% | |
| Rainbow 2,163 m | 31% | |
| Isola-D Bypass 373 m | 25% | |
| Isola-D 674 m | 19% | |
| East Trail 684 m | 2% |
Each figure is a share of the surveyed ground in a band 35–90 m either side of the run. The run itself and the rest of the mountain are outside it. The survey resolves about 24 m on the ground and the band is only a few cells wide, so the figure covers what the band is made of and cannot single out one tree, gap or line of sight. Runs the survey barely covers are left out. The survey has no treeline and no stem-density data.
03
What actually grows here
The survey sorts every polygon into one of its vegetation zones, then names the stand within it. A mountain usually falls into five or six zones, each holding many named stands.
| Vegetation zone | Share of classified ground | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Beech-zone regrowth ブナクラス域代償植生 | 35% | |
| Plantation and farmland 植林地・耕作地植生 | 33% | |
| Natural beech-zone forest ブナクラス域自然植生 | 18% | |
| Natural subalpine conifer forest コケモモ－トウヒクラス域自然植生 | 8% | |
| Subalpine conifer-zone regrowth コケモモ－トウヒクラス域代償植生 | 4% | |
| Other その他 | 2% | |
| Alpine natural vegetation 高山帯自然植生域 | 0% | |
| Riverside, wetland, salt marsh and dune 河辺・湿原・塩沼地・砂丘植生 | 0% |
The named stands underneath
The survey’s own community names, largest first. These are proper names for stand types, and the survey publishes them only in Japanese.
- シラカンバ－ミズナラ群落 17%
- エゾイタヤ－ミズナラ群落 15%
- 畑雑草群落 15%
- ササ群落（V） 6%
- カラマツ植林 6%
- ササ－ダケカンバ群落（北海道） 5%
The other 36 communities
- ササ－シラカンバ群落 5%
- トドマツ植林 5%
- 牧草地 5%
- ダケカンバ群落（III） 3%
- オオヨモギ群落 3%
- ダケカンバ群落（V） 2%
- ササ群落（II） 2%
- ゴルフ場・芝地 1%
- ハルニレ群落 1%
- 放棄畑雑草群落 1%
- 市街地 1%
- 伐採跡地群落（V） 1%
- 緑の多い住宅地 1%
- アカエゾマツ植林 1%
- ササ群落（III） 1%
- トドマツ－ミズナラ群落 0%
- ミヤマハンノキ群落（北海道） 0%
- ヤナギ高木群落（IV） 0%
- ヒメヤシャブシ－タニウツギ群落 0%
- 残存・植栽樹群をもった公園、墓地等 0%
- ササ群落（IV） 0%
- ダケカンバ－エゾマツ群落 0%
- ヤナギ低木群落（IV） 0%
- ニセアカシア群落 0%
- ヤマハンノキ群落 0%
- オオヨモギ－オオイタドリ群団 0%
- 開放水域 0%
- 伐採跡地群落（III） 0%
- ススキ群団（V） 0%
- 路傍・空地雑草群落 0%
- エゾマツ植林 0%
- コケモモ－ハイマツ群集 0%
- ダケカンバ群落（II） 0%
- シナノキンバイ－ミヤマキンポウゲ群団 0%
- ヨシクラス 0%
- 放棄水田雑草群落 0%
Every share is of the ground the survey classified on this mountain, which is more than the forest and more than the ski area. The zones are the survey’s own; the English is a gloss and the Japanese is the source term. Zones are ordered by area, and area has no bearing on how well a zone skis.
04
How natural this vegetation is
The survey grades every polygon on a ten-point scale of how little people have changed it. Level 1 is made ground with almost nothing growing on it; level 10 is natural grassland and alpine heath. The scale measures human interference only. Natural fir sits at 9 and is a wall you cannot see through; a larch plantation sits at 6, evenly spaced and good to ski.
| Level | Share of classified ground | Share |
|---|---|---|
| 10 | Natural grassland and alpine heath | 2% |
| 9 | Natural forest | 24% |
| 8 | Regrowth close to natural forest | 3% |
| 7 | Secondary forest | 25% |
| 6 | Plantation | 11% |
| 5 | Tall secondary grassland | 7% |
| 4 | Short secondary grassland | 7% |
| 3 | Orchard, tea and mulberry field | 0% |
| 2 | Farmland and green residential land | 20% |
| 1 | Built-up and made ground | 1% |
A fraction of a percent of the classified ground carries a code outside the ten levels. It is left out of the rows above.
Every share is of the ground the survey classified on this mountain. The scale records human interference only; a higher level does not mean better skiing. Levels this mountain does not have are left out.
National vegetation survey, 2024 edition, Biodiversity Center, Ministry of the Environment, Japan. Processed by JapowDB; the Ministry did not produce this version.
This mountain's polygons were walked in 2011. The edition is dated 2024; the fieldwork is older.
Each cell is about 24 m across, roughly the size of a small clearing.