Back in 2010 we rated Rusutsu as the number one ski resort in Japan for powder hounds due to its combination of quality and quantity of powder, abundant off-piste terrain, and the lack of crowds. Whilst it still shines in the snow and tree skiing departments, it’s definitely not undiscovered now, which we suppose is partly a good thing considering the number of Japanese ski resorts on the brink of financial ruin.

We stayed at Rusutsu for a few days and it seemed pretty busy. Some of the lift lines were bad on a powder day, which was probably mostly due to inefficient loading of the lifts. A hangover of Covid procedures wasn’t helping, whilst other daft or absent procedures were resulting in lots of chairs and gondolas heading up with just one or two people. Easy-to-access fresh lines were possible to obtain in the morning, but we had to work hard for them. A few days later we returned for a day trip on a smaller powder day and the place was quiet, and fresh lines were easier to come by. It’s often hard to figure out which days half of Niseko might turn up to Rusutsu.

Back in 2010 we also thought Rusutsu provided great value for money! Nowadays, lift passes, equipment rentals, food, accommodation, ski lessons etc are some of the most expensive in Japan. Regardless, it seems that plenty of people are willing to pay the extra yen for a quality Rusutsu experience.

So what else has changed since we last visited in 2020? The most obvious is the addition of The Vale Rusutsu, which is a luxury condo hotel adjoined with the Rusutsu Resort Hotel. It offers lavish accommodation as well as the extensive facilities of the resort hotel. We stayed at The Vale Rusutsu, which was amazing, and you can see our review here.

Between The Vale and the Rusutsu Resort Hotel is a new onsen complex. It was very clean and modern, with beautiful grey slate walls and baths. In addition to indoor baths, there was a large outdoor bath for each gender that came complete with upright and reclined seats. It was a beautiful experience.

Another highlight of our stay was breakfast at Sekkatei, which offered a set menu Japanese breakfast with lots of different treats and attentive service. It was a breath of fresh air compared to the sterile buffet breakfast.

Our thoughts on the pros and cons of Rusutsu are outlined on the overview page, and you can also see how we rate it versus other ski areas on the Hokkaido ski resort ratings page.
See our video here

My family spent a week at Rusutsu in mid-January 2023. We had an unusual week of weather with the first 4 days being clear skies and unusually warm for January, so by the time the snow came back towards the end of our week we were well and truly craving some fresh snow!
Rusutsu has a quirky layout, with the road running through the middle of the resort dividing the West Mt side from the East Mt and Mt Isola side. The different areas are connected by a gondola and a monorail, so getting from one side to the other is pretty seamless. The monorail was particularly fun for my kids. There is also the accommodation and an array of shops and restaurants, mainly on the West Mt side. This is where you can also find the merry-go-round and famous talking tree.
Our first day with blue sky was a blessing as it helped us to get a visual understanding of just how big Rusutsu is, and we took advantage of the Mt Yotei views from the top of the resort on the Mt Isola side.
As it was the first time back on the snow for most of the family, they were very happy cruising the groomers, and the groomers at Rusutsu are long and undulating with a few faster and steeper sections, particularly at the top of the runs. On our second day we went powder hunting around some lift lines and through the trees on the East Mt side and were pleasantly surprised to find some areas with untracked snow that was still in fantastic condition. We headed back over to West Mt in the afternoon and although the runs are shorter in this area, we stayed until after dark and the kids enjoyed many laps and their first ever experience of night skiing. Cruising amongst the rides and rollercoasters of the amusement park was also something different.
By day 3 the snow was starting to get a little icy, particularly on the runs that were exposed to the afternoon sun, and this made many of the trails on the Mt Isola side quite treacherous with the moguls that had developed and the icy conditions. With another sunny day on day 4 we decided to take a rest day and took a bus to Lake Toya for the day. This is a fun day trip if you want to take a break.
Finally the snow came back toward the end of our week and this is when we got to experience all of the amazing terrain that Rusutsu has to offer, particularly the tree skiing on the Mt Isola side. There are so many areas where you can duck into the trees and generally you will be deposited back onto a trail or find yourself popping out right next to a lift. The trees are really well spaced and there is a good mix of reasonably steep and mellow terrain. We also smashed down a few lift lines which the kids especially enjoyed.
The long groomers also take on an extra element of fun with 10-15cm of fresh snow on top, and there are fantastic powder stashes on the edges and in the adjacent trees.
With the first 4 days of blue sky we didn't feel like we quite got the full Rusutsu experience, but the final 2 days showed us that Rusutsu is an absolute gem of a resort when you can ride the consistent freshies that the area is famous for.
Crowds were also far more manageable than at neighboring Niseko with lift lines being no more than a minute or two while we were there.
We will definitely return to Rusutsu again and can't wait to further explore the expansive tree areas that we felt we only just touched on during our time there.
See our video here

So up front I love Rusutsu. Has some of the best skiing I’ve ever experienced anywhere in the world. Even just 3 years ago there were no lift lines and it was well run. Post-covid though it’s now really busy and they haven’t made necessary improvements needed to lift infrastructure and processes to keep up.

The new Vale resort is nice, but badly planned. It’s not really ski out when you have to hike up a hill to get to the gondola to cross to the east mtn. It’s miles from anything - to get to breakfast is a minimum 10 minute walk with 2 elevators and down 4 escalators to the old hotel. Why there wasn’t a restaurant serving breakfast at least in the hotel I don’t know. Also don’t know how it won “worlds best ski hotel” in 2021 without a restaurant. The restaurants in the old Rusutsu resort are also pretty average, you really have to leave the resort to find anything decent at a reasonable price.

The lifts are mostly high speed quad, yet they only have two gates/pass scanners at each one. This invariably results in the chairs going with only 2 people most of the time. In the morning peak this caused massive delays and huge lines. Nobody seems to want to share a lift here now. They need the NZ and Australian systems where there is someone sorting the crowd into groups of 4. I think there is also some reluctance from locals to share lifts because of covid, but the reality is it is so cold, everyone is covered up anyway so pretty low chances of catching anything.

At the Isola Gondola today we waited nearly thirty minutes whilst they were sending some
gondolas up with 1 person in them. The ski racks on most of the gondola carriages won’t fit powder skis, so then you have to take them inside and can only fit two people in instead of 4-6. You’d think a resort famous for its powder would be equipped to handle powder skis on the gondola.

Also have had a couple of negative restaurant experiences where we’ve been virtually ignored whilst waiting to be seated in what were nearly empty restaurants, yet there were plenty of staff around. There seem to be a lot of staff now that are not local and have zero experience in hospitality, and do not meet the normal Japanese standards. Very disappointing it is going this way.
See our video here

Great little resort if you are looking to get into the trees. No hard core steeps, but enough steepish groomers to Lee most happy, and epic both on and off groom with fresh snow. We didn’t get a complete reset in the first week of Feb, but 15cm on a couple of nights which meant you could find untouched in the trees for the entire day. Like all Japanese resorts the infrastructure is become aged and the main resort hotel is certainly quirky. Izakaya eating options are limited but good quality, although there are no cheap eats. We did 6 days and didn’t get bored at any point.
See our video here

Just totally loved everything about Rusutsu. The moment you walk in you're greeted by this quirky animatronic singing tree. Then you discover theres a full arcade and merry-go round indoors, and a theme park outside. But enough about that. The mountain itself might be my favorite mountain I've ever ridden now. The groomed runs across the entire mountain were fast and wide and we lapped them over n over loving every minute of it. However the main appeal to boarding at Rusutsu was the tree skiing and it did not disappoint. It was a dry snowfall year but recent storms had dumped 49 inches over the last week so conditions were supreme minus some tall sassa grass. The trees really had something for everyone. All over Mt.Isola had a wide variety of all kids of different tree sections: tight trees, spaced trees, flat mellow trees, steep trees and cliff drops; plus little japanese pillows sprinkled all throughout. We found untouched deep pockets of Japow all throughout Rusutsu. We ate lunch at the Steamboat Cafeteria at the bottom of Mount Isola, had some good american food as well as japanese options. The lift system was effective although the gondolas themselves were obviously very old. Once you get to the area where you'll be riding however the lifts are newer and if your riding at Isola then they're all covered lifts or "Bubbles". We didn't wait in any lines while we were at Rusutsu. We even lapped West Mt at the end of the day three times because the first time we found sooooo much untouched snow in the trees and with that mountain being right out front of the resort we never expected it and didn't wanna leave!
See our video here

There’s no point lamenting that Rusutsu has well and truly been discovered. Even the Americans know about it considering that it’s now on the Epic Pass. It’s refreshing to hear the Americans rave about Rusutsu and how uncrowded it is, because relative to some of their crazy busy ski resorts, Rusutsu is rather quiet. Gone are the days of riding line after line of lift-served untracked pow at Rusutsu, yet it’s still great and has plenty to offer.

We visited on a powder day during a bad season, but there was more snow and less bamboo bashing at Rusutsu compared with Niseko, and lots of other people had the same idea to head to Rusutsu. The queues to get a lift ticket were horrific, and when we saw the inefficient process of getting a lift ticket with your Epic Pass we could see why. Thankfully there weren’t any queue issues out on the hill, but there were ridiculous queues to buy lunch at the Cafeteria Isola 2000 where Japanese process inefficiencies were once again evident in full force.

Naturally considering the increase in visitation, we had to work a little harder to get those lunchtime freshies, but with a pair of skins and pushing a little further afield we found some lovely deep powder stashes. We’ll definitely be back!

Our thoughts on the pros and cons are outlined on the Rusutsu overview page, and you can also see how we rate it versus other ski areas on the Japanese ski resort ratings page.
See our video here

We had powder everyday. Were there at February 2019, good ski resort with good off piste possibilities. You will find some steep part there also. Good tree skiing.
See our video here

Great ski resort with good runs for different skiing abilities. Gorgeous scenery.
See our video here

We visited Rusutsu mid-January.
The piste on the three mountains are truly an intermediates paradise. I think most of the runs are over rated; that is some of the reds are greens and the groomed blacks are reds based on what I have skied in Canada. The piste was clear when we visited because most that visit Rusutsu do so for the tree skiing which is 5 star.
There are two main resort accommodations. The Westin which is a western style magnificent hotel that has everything you would need except a sports bar and culture. The Rusutsu Hotel is nice also but only has rooms catering up to 3 people. The Westin’s 2 story rooms are the biggest I have seen in any resort anywhere! There are some local ryokans which look good and cheap. Another option is the new private ski villas that are being built by foreigners 300M to the north. They look very classy and are listed on AirBNB and other websites. Most will house 2 families.
The rental gear is a bit pricy at the hotels as there is no competition. The rental shop near the 7-Eleven has closed down which is a shame.
We flew from Brisbane (1am departure) via Hong Kong into Sapporo with Cathay Pacific as the plane lands around 3pm giving time to get up the mountain the same day you leave.
The only thing lacking is nightlife and night time restaurants. There is a string of local Izakayas near the resort hotel but book two days in advance. Overall this mountain is awesome.
See our video here

Rusutsu was a great day trip from Niseko. One of the best powder days of the trip. Off piste was easily accessible with many bowls to explore.

Getting a weather forecast or accurate snowfall report is impossible though
See our video here