Dynaland Ski Resort

Dynaland is the most popular ski resort in Gifu and it is frequented by folks living in the Kansai regions of western Japan. For international tourists, the Dynaland Ski Resort is close to Kanazawa in Ishikawa Prefecture, which is a popular tourist alternative to Kyoto with its many Edo-era buildings and classic Japanese gardens. Dynaland is also in the vague vicinity of Kyoto and Osaka. 

Pros and Cons of Dynaland Gifu

Pros

• The Dynaland Ski Resort is inter-connected with Takasu Snow Park, and combined the two ski areas offer decent sized terrain by Japanese standards.
• Dynaland has a few good terrain parks.
• Dynaland offers relatively easy access for Kansai people. It’s only 1.5 hours from Nagoya and there are bus tours from Nagoya station to Dynaland.
• A few of the lifts move at a swift pace.
• There are other ski resorts in the area that can be accessed off a common lift ticket.

Cons

• Dynaland Ski Resort can get horrendous weekend crowds and the access roads can be really congested.
• The snow quality is fine for piste and park riding, but Dynaland is not renowned for having high quality Japow. A lot of the snow is manmade.

Pro or Con Depending On Your Perspective

• Dynaland Ski Resort opens at 6am (!!) on weekends and holidays and stays open well into the evening. You’d have to be super keen to get fresh tracks on a powder day, but at least you’d beat the traffic going to neighbouring resorts.
• Dynaland has a very strong snowboard culture which is great, however a lack of etiquette is often evident which can result in impenetrable “snowboard fences” across the top of the runs (or in the middle of runs).

Dynaland Ski and Snowboard Terrain

In its own right, Dynaland Ski Resort is reasonable sized with 18 courses, 4 lifts (3 quads, 1 double chair1), and 447 metres of vertical (984 - 1,431m). It is connected with Takasu Snow Park which is on the same lift ticket. The two ski areas combined have 30 courses and 43km of piste.

Like the majority of ski resorts in Japan, the Dynaland courses are mostly suited to beginner and intermediate riders, and the alleged expert runs are not very challenging. There are 4 official tree runs where the trees are very widely spaced, and elsewhere the culture is slowly changing with respect to off-piste riding. This isn’t a fabulous ski resort for powder hounds and the terrain is more renowned for its ugly power lines than its powder lines (maybe that’s why it’s called Dyna Land?!).

Dynaland Snow

Dynaland receives a modest amount of snow from Mother Nature, which is heavily supplemented by snowmaking guns. The snow quality is good when it’s fresh but it can readily sour considering its southerly position, a southeast to easterly aspect, and low elevation relative to a couple of the Gifu resorts around Takayama. Takasu Ski Resort next door has slightly better snow quality because the slopes face mostly northeast to east.

Where is Dynaland Gifu?

Dynaland sits on the eastern flank of Mt Dainichi, 39km north of the city of Gujo in the Gifu Prefecture. By road, Dynaland is:

• 116km north of Nagoya
• 120km southeast of Kanazawa
• 221km northeast of Kyoto
• 271km northeast of Osaka  
• 370km west of Tokyo

There are no buses from nearby train stations so you either have to drive or get one of the tour buses from Osaka (that leaves at an ungodly hour) or Nagoya train station.

Other than the potential for traffic, the drive to Dynaland is reasonably easy and it’s just 10 minutes from Tokai Hokuriku Expressway Takatsuki IC.

Ski Resorts Nearby

A joint Takasu Mountains lift ticket is available that covers Dynaland as well as the neighbouring ski resorts of Takasu, Hirugano Kogen, White Pia Takasu and Washigatake. A free shuttle bus operates between Dynaland and Takasu Snow Park (7km away by road) and Hirugano Kogen.

Accommodation

There are no ski-in ski-out hotels at the base of Dynaland, and Hotel Villa Montsaint is the closest (500m away) hotel. There is a complimentary shuttle to take you from the hotel to the slopes.

There are various other hotels nearby, but many people just day trip to Dynaland.

Dynaland Hotel Listings

Ski Resort Facilities

The base amenities are extensive and cope reasonably well with the weekend warriors. There are large cafeterias, an all-important crepe shop, a massive shop so you can buy confectionary gifts to take back to your work mates, child care services, and modern equipment rentals. There are also ski and snowboard lessons with English speaking instructors if you book ahead.