Sugadaira, Nagano 菅平高原スキー場

#Published

It is pretty much the end of the snow season, but I can still reminisce about some ski resorts I’ve been to this year. This post will talk about Sugadaira Kogen Snow Resort 菅平高原スキー場.

Sugadaira itself is marketed as a single snow resort entity, but within it are three areas, Pine Beak, Taro and Davos. Taro and Davos are connected via a short tunnel under a road (or you can also walk across the road). These two areas combined and is also marketed as Sugadaira Hare, though the website hasn’t been updated since 2007.

Sugadaira Pine Beak itself is a 5 min drive from the other two resorts. You can’t walk or ski over to it. Pine Beak is split into two parts though there is a traverse between them.. Nearby, around the same distance is actually another resort called Rewild Ninja, but they’re not as part of the same group.

On the Sugadaira Ski Map they’re fictionally the same mountain, but in reality, it’s an amalgamation of three or four areas.

When it comes to representing these resorts, there is no consensus on how to represent them. Some sites will represent them as a single resort, some will list them out separately. I think the areas Pine Beak is separate enough that you can consider that as a separate resort, the Taro and Davos area, though connected, needs a traverse and walk and I think that’s separate enough to call them separate areas.

Tickets

The ticket you buy from the Taro/Davos (aka. Hare) side technically gives you access to the whole Sugadaira. But if you go over to the Pine Beak area, you need to swap your ticket at the ticket office for a Pine Beak ticket. The whole Sugadaira use RFID tickets, but for some reason they need this extra step.

The day I rode Sugadaira, I started off on the Taro area, rode over to Davos and then decided to try Pine Beak. Once I got there, I got really confused why I couldn’t use my ticket even though I was told it should work. After a few minutes of trying, I gave up. Only afterwards did I read the instructions on the website and it said that I needed to swap the ticket at the ticket office when switching areas.

CAT Skiing

At the top of Davos, there’s a little hut next two CATs. It’s one of the most accessible CAT skiing places I’ve been to. You can pay an extra ¥4000 for the ticket to go on the CAT. The day I went, there was very low visibility, so I decided to not try it. You can see the course it’ll take you on the map, and I’d give it a go next time on a good day.