Asahidake potentially has some of the best powder in the world or perhaps it gets pipped at the post by Kurodake on the other side of the mountain where the aspect is a little more favourable. So we love Asahidake but there are plenty of people who don’t enjoy their experience at Asahidake. Many of those that hate it seem to arrive with expectations that are way off the mark. These include expectations that the weather is always calm and bluebird, and that you can just ski or ride steep fall line from the ropeway (with no hiking/skinning) and find completely virgin powder without the services of a guide.

On this trip we had the most amazing day in deep powder (again) at Asahidake, in part because we knew what to expect and had a great guide from WhiteRoom Tours.

Asahidake in summary:
- Yes the weather and visibility can be absolutely crappy – all that snow doesn’t fall from blue skies
- Yes you might not get a lot of vertical in each day
- Yes Asahidake is not a secret anymore and you might have to wait for the ropeway at times
- Yes this is the backcountry that just happens to have a ropeway to help with the ascent, not a ski resort.
- Yes it will track out quickly right under the ropeway and nearby zones if you’re only prepared to put in zero effort to get your turns. This goes especially for snowboarders without poles.
- Yes there are plenty of flat parts and you’ll have to fossick to get to the steep lines.
- Yes the powder can be glorious!!

For 2023 not too much had changed at Asahidake Ropeway. They accepted credit cards for lift pass purchases but you needed a physical credit card and couldn’t use wallet on your phone or watch. The village was doing it tough post Covid. La Vista Hotel was completely closed and the outdoor onsen at the Bear Monte was closed because they didn’t have enough staff to deal with it. Undoubtedly all will return to normal for 2023-24 season.

You’ll find more on our thoughts on the pros and cons on the Asahidake overview page and you can see how we rate it versus other Japanese ski areas.
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I had a day at Asahidake in Feb 2020. Fresh snow. Bluebird day. Good team to ski with. It doesn't get much better. I was staying at Furano, which was also the place to be in Japan in February 2020. The day at Asahidake was so good though, that I would have happily skied a few more, if I could have got back there. Rental car next time for sure.
The last time I skied Asahidake was with a tour, and it was pretty good, but they weren't catering for skinning. The experience with touring gear this time was totally different. I remember watching the other skiers disappear up the mountain years before and vowing to come back!
We started with a skin and hike up to the summit. Followed by the second descent into the crater for the day. A perfect line of untracked snow ours for the taking. There was a little rock damage to the bases, it wasn't a typical season for snow cover and the thin patches were difficult to judge. There were a lot of smiles at the bottom though.
The rest of the day we caught the ropeway and then skin far enough above the station to be able to pick lines that hadn't been touched. 100 to 150 metres of ascent opens up a lot of terrain at the top of Asahidake. The descent from about halfway down the ropeway serviced slopes is not very exciting, but the rest is pretty sublime. This is definitely on the hit list for the next visit to Japan.
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As with any mountain nowadays, it all depends on when you hit it, so if you came and Asahi-dake wasn’t amazing, you just had unfortunate timing.
The second point is that unless you are prepared to earn your turns, anywhere with pow gets tracked very quickly.
We got here on the night of 20/02/20, and it started to absolutely dump.
We headed out in white out conditions from the top of the ropeway (get there early...), traversed terrain and accessed an amazing aspect. Steep enough (I hit 60kph in pow...) and ultra deep. Faceshots all day. We broke a skin track, and had the place to ourselves.
The next day, the storm had died down, and the fair weather types came out. Still great, but more people. We only used the last part of the groomer trail to return to the lodge. Otherwise was all bc terrain.
So: timing, effort, diligence are key. Invest effort and you can find great pow.
Please don’t ski/board alone. Asahidake is treacherous for the unprepared
Hire a guide if you are willing to put the effort in. Otherwise you will feel it is an oversell
See our video here

Unless u like waiting 40min for a 2min run, dont go there. Way overrated. Too many people on a nice day and on a cloudy day u cant see shit. Would never go back.
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It’s worth the trip to ski Asahidache! I took a day trip here from Furano with Whiteroom guides. My guide was a really nice guy named Jaacko from Finland. It was a big storm day but luckily the ropeway was running. We got in 4 runs before they closed it due to high winds. The powder was blower pow over my head every turn. Incredibly deep. Visibility decreased throughout the day but the powder was the deepest of the trip. By the time we got back to the car it had snowed 2 feet on the car while we had been skiing. Amazing! I can see why this isn't a good place for snowboarders with the long run outs at the end and especially with 5+ feet of powder and the need to break trail at times but honestly I would like to go back and spend a week here as long as I could drive to other resorts. I loved that there wasn't more than 20 people there and when the ropeway closed we went to one of the oldest onsens for the rest of the day. Really cool experience. Would highly recommend!
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We stayed in Furano for a few days and rented a car (100 usd per day for a four seater) to make a side trip to the famous Asahidake.

The place itself is beautiful with the steamy vulcano and beatiful views of the Daisetsuzan range.

The onsen is also nice, I was especially impressed by the wood basin and the vintage feel.

Now...about the skiing. Asahidake is very windy and cloudy we picked one of the few blue bird days. The snow on the upper side was wind blown and packed. The terrain accesible by the cable car offers very limited options, the vertical drop is vert short and half of rhe run is flat. If you ski tour to the top of the mountain you get a good vertical drop and probably nice views. We did not climb, as the sbiw was windblown and hardpacked, i cannot imagine how can you find powder above the tree line on that mountain. Probably there are two days in a season with perfecf conditions. Because blue bird is rare, it was very crowded, all the powder in the trees was shreded, the options being limited everything is skied really fast.

The quotes we got for guiding were really high (we got one at 200 usd per person per day) amd compared to other amazing places where I have hired a guide this is really overpriced. This is just a personal opinion of course.

So, to conclude, the place is worth a visit, but do not get your expectations too high about the skiing.
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We traveled from Furano to Asahidake on a single day trip, hoping to find the powder this area is renowned for. It was one of the rare bluebird days available here.
Unfortunately reality did not raise up to the expectations. Leaving aside the fact that there was little unshredded powder (most of the top faces being covered by hardpack snow), the terrain is not great for skiing no matter the state of the snow. For snowboarders this is especially true, considering the long flats. The elevation difference is small from the bottom to the top of the lift and because of the flats it gives little descent options.
Also, the increasing number of offpiste skiers driven to Asakidake by excessively positive reviews is a problem by itself. I would not recommend this destination to anyone visiting Hokkaido in the search of good skiing options.
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In 20 years of powder riding, this is best I’ve ever done. Deep light snow. Great guide.
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So I checked out this resort a while ago, spent about 5 days there, and overall as a regular snowboarder (meaning not doing split or walking too much) I am not sure I would recommend the resort.

Elevation is not so high which makes for really short runs, relief got some flat parts meaning taking speed or having sticks to keep yourself in motion and most of the time you will have to be walking at some point.
Steepness is present in some places but overall really rare, so I believe for deep snow runs the place is good, but the rides will be rather very mellow.

That is unless you ride with some people that knows the spot in which case you can find few runs that are longer, but will end up walking nonetheless.

So yeah, out of these 5 days I got couple of mind blowing runs with pillows; but 40 min walk behind anyways.
Just keep it in mind.
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Ignore the 3 out of 5 rating. This isn't a place for piste skiers/boarders or children (you'd lose them in the powder) so the low scores on those indicators don't count. We did a day trip from Furano but if I'd known there were hotels at the base of the hill I'd have stayed there. Also don't be put off by the lack of apres - there isn't any that we could find in Japan, it's really not like Europe in that regard. Look on the plus side, it means you've got a clear head for all that powder. It was staggering!
See our video here