Charmant Hiuchi Niigata
The Charmant Hiuchi Ski Resort in Niigata is small, particularly on paper, so it would be pretty easy for a powder hound to dismiss this as just another pokey little Japanese ski resort that’s only suitable for the local beginners. Don’t write off Charmant Hiuchi though, because it’s a snow sanctuary that frequently gets puked on, and it’s not completely mellow.
Best of all for powder hounds, the Charmant Hiuchi ski area (Shulman Hiuchi) is relatively undiscovered, in part because there are so many larger destination ski resorts that are quicker to get to from Tokyo. Charmant Hiuchi is ideally visited as a day trip from
Hakuba,
Myoko Kogen or
Lotte Arai.
Pros and Cons of Charmant Hiuchi
Pros
- Charmant Hiuchi has the essential ingredients for a great powder hound destination for a day trip:
- The ski area generally gets huge snowfalls and snow bases in excess of 5 metres!
- Many of the slopes are north facing.
- You can pretty much ski or snowboard the entire resort and the sidecountry; lots of great tree runs.
- Charmant Hiuchi isn’t on the mainstream powder hound radar and it’s a bit out of the way so it’s generally very quiet, especially on weekdays.
- There are beautiful views of the sea on fine days.
Cons
- The snow can be very deep but the powder is sometimes rather coastal, so fresh is best.
- The terrain size is pretty small and if it’s not dumping with snow, then boredom may set in rather quickly.
- There is no accommodation on-mountain.
Pro or Con Depending On Your Perspective
- The staff tend not to use the grooming machines on powder days.
- Don’t expect any or much English to be spoken at the ski area and surrounding towns.
Charmant Ski and Snowboard Terrain
Charmant Hiuchi is a bit of a pee wee ski resort, with only 3 lifts (1 quad chair and 2 pair lifts), 16 trails (which is over-selling it), and 96 hectares of piste terrain. At least it has decent vertical (510m, 501-1,009m) but it’s still pretty small and you can ski most of the mountain off the main quad lift.
Officially the trail stats are 20% beginner, 45% intermediate, and 35% advanced. In reality the slopes are not ideal for novices, and intermediate riders are likely to get bored very quickly. Advanced riders that want to stay on-piste (god knows why!!) will get bored even quicker, even though one of the runs has a pitch of 37 degrees at one point.
Like a lot of Japanese ski resorts, the real fun for advanced and expert riders is in the off-piste and backcountry areas. The tree skiing across the resort includes the typical deciduous trees, evergreen pines, and easy to manoeuvre shrubbery. Of course, the latter is often not even visible when the snow base is at its peak!
Snow
If you think
Hakuba Cortina gets absolutely dumped on because of its proximity to the coast, then you can start to imagine what happens at Charmant Hiuchi which is even closer to the coast. On average, the snow base sits at 4 metres in the middle of winter, and gets as high as 5.5 metres. The snow is coastal, but it has a shady aspect in its favour.
Where is Charmant Hiuchi Ski Resort?
The Charmant Hiuchi Ski Resort is 33km southeast of the coastal town of Itoigawa in the Niigata Prefecture of
Honshu, and 103km northwest of
Nagano City. No is the closest train station, which is 16km northwest of the ski resort. It’s close to
Myoko and
Lotte Arai as the crow flies.
Your best bet to get there is to have your own
rental car or a
guide who provides transport.
Accommodation
There is no accommodation at the base of the ski hill. The closest lodgings are in little villages on Highway 246.
Or the town of Itoigawa (33km away) has inexpensive hotels and is a good spot to stay if you’re road tripping to or from Hakuba. Joetsu (46km away) has a range of hotels including deluxe hotels and budget capsule hotels for the fellas and could be a place to stay if you also want to hit up Lotte Arai Resort.
Or you can visit Charmant Hiuchi as a day trip from your
Hakuba accommodation,
Lotte Arai accommodation, or
Myoko Kogen accommodation.
Itoigawa Accommodation Listings
Joetsu Hotel Listings
Ski Resort Facilities
The CharMant Hiuchi Snow Resort is somewhat unique in that it opened post the bubble era, so unlike many other Japanese ski resorts, some of the amenities are relatively modern (don’t get too excited though!).
Centre House at the base of the ski resort hosts most of the facilities and services, including ski and snowboard rentals, a kids’ play room (requires adult supervision), retail shop, rest room, and lockers. The restaurant offers very inexpensive fare that’s pretty typical for a Honshu ski resort and there is a lovely log cabin at the top that serves cafeteria style food. A photography service is provided and Charmant Hiuchi has a ski school, but don’t expect any of the instructors to speak fluent English.