Shirao
A six-lift Gifu area with 510 metres of vertical and a three-kilometre run, closed in 2018 within sight of the still-busy Takasu resorts; every lift is still standing.
- Region
- Gifu Prefecture
- Country
- Japan
- Status
- abandoned
- Year opened
- mid-1980s
- Year closed
- 2018
- Reason for closure
- Not stated in the surviving record.
History
Shirao (しらおスキー場) sat on the south-western slopes of Shiraoyama in Gujo City, Gifu Prefecture, less than a kilometre off Prefecture Road 82 and just south-east of the Takasu ski area - close enough to one of central Japan busiest winter destinations to make its failure pointed. It was a substantial hill in its own right: six lifts, four pair and two single, over six courses from a 730 m base to a 1,240 m top, giving 510 m of vertical, a longest run of 3,000 m and a steepest pitch of 38 degrees, with terrain spread evenly across the grades. It opened in the mid-1980s and closed in 2018. No reason is recorded, and that field is left saying so. All the lifts were still in place when the site was assessed in 2020. Course names are not compiled in accessible sources; the coordinates mark Shiraoyama.
Lifts
| Name | Type | Manufacturer | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Unnamed lift | Chairlift - Double | 1,000 m | |
| Unnamed lift | Chairlift - Double | 850 m | |
| Unnamed lift | Chairlift - Double | 520 m | |
| Unnamed lift | Chairlift - Double | 240 m | |
| Unnamed lift | Chairlift - Single | 850 m | |
| Unnamed lift | Chairlift - Single | 560 m |
Sources and further reading
More in Japan
Location
35.9190, 136.9671