We like to review little ski areas because sometimes they are gems despite looking unappealing for powder hounds on paper, however Canmore was one of those unfortunate ski areas that wasn’t good in reality either.

We arrived at lunch time on a Sunday and pretty much got the last car park because it was busy, especially relative to some of the other little northern Hokkaido ski areas which had been almost deserted. It was nice to see that lots of the locals were out enjoying their Sunday, and that this was not a ski area on the brink of financial ruin. The quad chair had short lift lines with a wait of only 1 to 2 minutes, which elsewhere in the world would be defined as an absence of a queue.

Despite there being lots of people on the groomers, the snow quality was good but there just wasn’t enough of it. The snow base at Canmore was sitting at 70cm in mid January, which was in line with previous seasons, and the off-piste looked very uninviting considering the density of the trees and undergrowth. This was disappointing after having visited other ski areas just a little further NW that had much better snow quality and quantity. It’s close to the famed Asahidake that gets ridiculous amounts of snow (admittedly at much higher elevation) but alas it seemed that Canmore is in a precipitation doughnut.

The one advanced run was officially closed, and after skiing it we wondered why it would be closed. There were no cracks or the like and the cover was OK and about as good as it would probably get. We wouldn’t be surprised it the run is rarely open.

You can see how we rated Canmore on various factors on the Hokkaido ski resort ratings.
See our video here