This ski area is one of the day trips you can make from Asahikawa by car. It is small and has limited terrain service by one Red slow chairlift. Your ski pass is Y2600 or free if you are 60+. You get what you pay for. I still loved it as you can make new turns in untracked terrain.
Most people will not last a day as it is not exciting enough.
Some of our group chose to sit it out in the well place little cafe.
We had a Green run skier in our group. Her ability is recently having learnt parallel turns, she found 3/4 of the Green run ok but the final 1/4 going back to the chair was too steep - approximately 30%. I think that's what Pounderhounds described as "too pitchy".
Off piste and in the trees are not permitted - many signs reminding us of this and to make it clear, the cost of a rescue is displayed in English!!
See our video here

We tend to get a hiding on social media when we post about a powder gem like Horotachi, with its amazing terrain and powder. It would be tempting to keep Horotachi a secret for our return visit, however there is always the risk in Japan of the ski area being closed the next year. There are so many Japanese ski areas in financial disarray that have closed lifts or are completely closed due to ageing infrastructure and a lack of income, so we don’t feel too guilty about spreading the word about little quiet ski areas like Horotachi.

We visited Horotachi on a cold sunny Saturday after a snowfall and the powder was much deeper than we’d expected considering the amount of snow in Asahikawa. We started on Course C which got pitchy towards the base, and whilst there weren’t many people there, it didn’t take long for the fresh powder to become chowder. After a run on Course D, the powder in the trees was calling. We’d heard about the strict approach to off-piste skiing, so we went in and out of the trees as subtly as possible. It took us back to the mid to late 2000s when there were lots of Hokkaido ski areas where off-piste skiing was staunchly forbidden, such as Furano, Tomamu, and Kiroro. When you see how these ski areas have now embraced their powder skiing strengths, it’s hard to believe that they would have banned tree skiing not that many years ago.

At one stage we saw a ski patroller. The patroller could barely ski on-piste so it suddenly become quite apparent as to why the ski area didn’t want anyone going into the trees. And seeing how quiet it was on a weekend, it was easy to see why Horotachi can’t afford a professional ski patrol service.

We travelled from Asahikawa and stayed at the OMO7 Asahikawa – you can see our review via this page.
See our video here