Kokusetsu Horotachi Ski Resort

Kokusetsu Horotachi is the locals ski area for the little town of Horokanai in northern Hokkaido. The town has a population of only 1,500 people which is somewhat indicative of the size of the ski area. Even though it’s within reasonable driving distance of the city of Asahikawa, competition from the locals for the dry powder snow is not fierce. Horotachi Ski Area is only small and low elevation, but you shouldn’t always read a book by its cover. This is a powder gem!

Pros and Cons of Kokusetsu Horotachi

Pros 

• The region is renowned for getting lots of snowfall and cold temperatures.
• Lift passes are cheap and you can get a 4 hour ticket to make it even cheaper, although you don’t get a lot of infrastructure for your yen. Lunch is really inexpensive too.
• Competition for the fresh Japow is usually low.
• It has a nice local’s vibe.

Cons

• Kokusetsu Horotachi is small and won’t keep the attention of experienced riders for very long.
• Horotachi has very good tree skiing but the staff are renowned for being off-piste Nazis, sort of like Furano used to be back in the mid 2000s and early 2010s before they dropped their old-school approach.
• The ski area is not very good for beginners because it’s too pitchy.

Pro or Con Depending On Your Perspective

• It’s a low elevation ski area with a southeast facing aspect, so it’s not the spot to head if the temperatures have warmed up.

Horotachi Ski and Snowboard Terrain

It’s a case of “what you see is what you get” at Kokusetsu Horotachi. It has one lovely red double chair lift and a vertical drop of just 217 metres (150 – 367m). There are 4 courses, of which 2 are usually groomed. Whilst the trails are rated for differing abilities, even the Forest course is a bit too steep for beginners and the trails are appropriate for intermediate to advanced skiers and snowboarders. One of the trails has a maximum gradient of 44 degrees at one point.

Needless to say, don’t ride under the chair lift. Off-piste and sidecountry skiing and riding is forbidden and if you choose to do so, you’d need to be discrete, undertake your own risk assessment, and accept self-responsibility. The tree skiing has some pitch and whilst some has easy ingress and egress, other parts have gullies/creeks that require navigation, especially in early season.

See the Horotachi ski area terrain page for more information.

Horotachi Snow

“Kokusetsu” means “overcoming snow problems” or something like that (it also means "national"!), but don’t take this as gospel because our Japanese language skills are terrible! Either way, Koksetsu Horotachi gets plenty of cold dry Hokkaido powder. The town of Horokanai is thought to get about 13 metres of snow on average annually. It also scores cold temperatures and the winter average is about -13°C (and Dec 31st 2020 saw a temperature of minus 32.6 °C), so despite being low elevation and having a sunny aspect, the snow quality is usually very good.

Where is Kokusetsu Horotachi?

The Horotachi Ski Resort is located in northern Hokkaido (Dohoku), 46km northwest of the city of Asahikawa.

You can see the location of Horotachi and other Northern Hokkaido ski resorts above via the map icon.

Accommodation

Simple and inexpensive accommodation sits at the base of the ski hill. Horotachi Sanso has Japanese style rooms, bunk beds, and rooms with lofts, and you can get half board with your accommodation package.

As Kokusetsu Horotachi is usually just visited for a one day trip, most people stay in Asahikawa accommodation.

Facilities

Amenities are delightfully no frills and located in one room of the day lodge, so don’t be expecting ski lessons, childcare or sleigh rides. The cafeteria serves up curry rice and other classic Japanese ski resort fare at very affordable prices.