Nagano snow forecast

Skiing in Nagano

Nagano prefecture, in the Japanese Alps on Honshu, hosted the 1998 Winter Olympics and has some of the biggest ski terrain in Japan. Storms from the Sea of Japan bring heavy snowfall, around 10 to 11 m a season in the Hakuba Valley, though temperatures swing more than in Hokkaido, so the snow is not always as light and an occasional warm spell can bring rain lower down.

The Hakuba section is a valley of ten resorts beneath the Northern Alps, sharing a regional pass. Hakuba Happo-one is the best known, an Olympic venue with a wide range of terrain from moguls and steep pitches to long cruising runs. Hakuba 47 and Goryu are linked and well groomed; Tsugaike, Iwatake and Norikura suit beginners and intermediates; and Cortina, at the northern end, is known for powder tree runs for stronger skiers. Most of the valley sits between about 760 m and 1,830 m.

The Shiga Kogen and Madarao section lies to the north east. Shiga Kogen, in a national park above Yamanouchi, is the largest interconnected ski area in Japan and has its highest lifted point at about 2,300 m. That altitude keeps the snow colder and the season longer than in the valley resorts. Madarao, in the north of the prefecture, is lower but faces largely north and is known for having more tree run courses than any other resort in Japan.

The season usually runs from December to March, with higher terrain open into April, and January and February bring the deepest snow. The Hokuriku shinkansen reaches Nagano station from Tokyo in about an hour and a half, with buses on to the resorts.