Zao Onsen Ski Resort Mountain
The landform the resort sits on: the shape of the hill beyond the pistes, how steep it gets, and where it stands among the mountains on JapowDB.
This mountain faces several ways at once, mostly north-west.
Where this vertical sits among the mountains on JapowDB
881 m, more than 25 of the 34 mountains on JapowDB.
The mountain
地蔵山 (Jizō-san), 蔵王連峰
- Above it
- 熊野岳 (Kumano-dake) 1,840 m
- Landform
- Zao is not one peak but a group of active basalt and andesite stratovolcanoes. The ropeway tops out at 1,661 m on Jizo-san's shoulder. The summit crater formed around 30,000 years ago and the range is still active today.
- Rock
- Andesite and basaltic andesite lava with its own debris, late Pleistocene, and the same top to bottom. It is young volcanic rock the whole way, which is also the reason there is a hot spring at the bottom of it.
From published sources, checked by hand · 2026-08-12
That ground is outside the ski area. It is not patrolled.
Measured
01
Which way it faces
Faces north-west.
Most of the mapped runs fall away toward the north-west.
02
How steep it gets
The steepest quarter of the runs faces west, a different way from the mountain overall.
Its steepest pitch measures 33.9°.
Its steepest tenth is steeper than 9 of the 34 mountains here that carry pitch data.
16.8° the steepest tenth of runs
03
How varied it is
Its runs range from 2.8° to 18.8°.
Half of them are gentler than 11.0°. Each mark is one run.
That spread is wider than 16 of the 34 mountains here that carry pitch data.
04
What grows on it
This mountain has both, in separate patches. The deciduous stands drop their leaves and open up for the winter; the conifer stands stay closed.
Read off the national vegetation survey (2024 edition), from fieldwork in 2015 and 2000.
The forest on this mountain, in detail