Oyu Onsen
A hot-spring ski area in the Niigata snow country, open from 1960 and closed on 31 January 2021; its pair lift was taken down and re-erected at a neighbouring hill while the slope grew over.
- Region
- Niigata Prefecture
- Country
- Japan
- Status
- closed
- Year opened
- 1960
- Year closed
- 2021
- Reason for closure
- Declining visitor numbers and declining snowfall in recent years. The area closed on 31 January 2021.
History
Oyu Onsen (大湯温泉スキー場) lay in what was then Yunotani Village, now part of Uonuma City in Niigata Prefecture, attached to a hot spring in some of the deepest snow country in Japan. It opened in 1960; records from 1973 describe a 330 m lift and two rope tows, and in its final years it ran a single 463 m pair lift over four courses, with a longest run of 800 m, a steepest pitch of 30 degrees and 145 m of vertical between a 310 m base and a 455 m top. Even here the snow became less dependable, and with visitor numbers falling the area closed on 31 January 2021. What happened to the lift is worth recording: rather than being left to rust, it was dismantled and re-erected at the nearby Yakushi ski area - one of several cases in this dataset of a dead hill's lift going on to work somewhere else. Plans for a snow park or other activities on the old ground never materialised, and by September 2024 the slope was substantially overgrown. Course names are not compiled in accessible sources; the coordinates mark Oyu Onsen.
Lifts
| Name | Type | Manufacturer | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Unnamed lift | Chairlift - Double | 463 m; removed after the 2021 closure and reinstalled at the nearby Yakushi ski area | |
| Unnamed lift | Surface lift | Records from 1973 describe an earlier fleet of one 330 m lift plus two rope tows |
Sources and further reading
More in Japan
Location
37.1934, 139.0805