Here's my snowboarding guide for Japan. Select from the resorts listed above to check out their modified trail maps.

I'll tell you where to go off-piste for fresh snow. Usually that means heading into the trees. If you are trying to decide which resort to go to, let this help.

Most of the areas I've marked seem safe for avalanches. I've tried to make note of possible avalanche hazards. This is not like a game of bingo where you are just playing for fun. If you get stuck in an avalanche you are at serious risk of being injured. But I'm no professional so don't trust anything you read here.

Yellow: marks where I'm confident about my information.
Blue: may be inaccurate or lacking information.
Red: contains warnings.

Yeah... Blue may be a better color to represent safety, but if you print these maps out the red and yellow are what need to be easily visible.

Movie Name

Movie Captions

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When I came here there was nothing but ice. The most unending ice I have ever ridden. My best run included catching the sunset colors and mountain views from that panoramic green catwalk #12 on the top.

1. Only place I could find anything to turn in. Kind of dense.

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A big problem with Goryu/47 is that the gondola seems to close often because of high winds.

1. You can ride the outter edge of the top area if you want some fresher snow and some terrain. This area is slow though.
2. Through a small, narrow, and open strip of trees to a steep spot under the lift.
3. This group of trees has a big drop-off and nice deep snow to land in.
4. The "adventure course" is an adventure of crappy snow. This area seems to always be roped off when the good snow is around, and accessible when it is an ice sheet. But if you do take it, you can ride in the trees to the right of it for some slightly better snow. Update: After a dump without heavy wind this place is ok.
5. This may be too steep and dense.
6. You can cut into this area from the top, left, or right. The entrypoint I marked is best. Once I saw a small bear running parallel to me in here! A video above was shot in here.
7. From the highest lift on the left of the map, you can climb to the top in 5-10 minutes and get a couple nice turns in.

1. This area looks inviting, but it contains dangling cornices of ice which look like they shouldn't be disturbed.

1. From the top-left lift you can hike a little down the backside, and back up the next mountain a bit. You can then ride back down the way you came. But you'll have to be careful to get back to your starting point. It's also possible to hike further out on the ridge and ride that face all the way down into the vally behind Goryu/47, but don't do that unless you are a professional or hired a guide. I don't know a way out of that valley. Please give me info: taylor@veltrop.com

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Very squiggly lines on this remap... it would appear that my trackpad Photoshop skills need some brushing up.

Check out my trail of the yellow #1 on my TrailGuru.

1. Going to the top and riding this ridge is great. It is so tempting to drop into the deadzone valley to the left, but probably too dangerous. You can drop skiers right at any time and ride through some dense trees back to the run. By the end of the day, the upper part of the ridge will probably be well ridden.
2. It's possible to ride this awesome face that you can see from the lifts. Be careful not to start an avalance, mostly at the top. Towards the end it is usually possible to merge with the run, but you may need to climb a little. If you don't merge, don't ride the valley too far becuase there are some dams across it.
3. This area used to be great... but lately they have been clearing out trees and leveling out the terrain. There's still a few nice drop-offs over cat-traks and a few trees you can duck through.
4. Some on-piste tree dodging and terrain for your training. Really just some tree-tops, and by the end of the season they should be almost completely buried.
5. It's possible to cut straight across the many switchbacks and neighboring patches of the windy Olympic Course. But be weary of beginners of course. Not recommended.

1. Don't cause an avalanche here!
2. Don't get stuck in the dams!

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I would skip this place. The runs are very short. And there's few runs.

When I came here late December they had advertised that they were fully operational. They were not. On-piste runs that had plenty of snow were roped off. They had ski patrol policing the slopes, blowing whistles at people trying to ride these areas.

There were some amazing looking areas in some of the many valleys around Iwatake. Unfortunately they all seemed to lead to inaccessible dead zones so I didn't take any chances. If you have had any luck here please share the information with me: taylor@veltrop.com

If you find yourself here, stick with the upper are accessed by the gondola.

1. The gondola area.

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This area has potential, but there wasn't enough snow when I visited last December to go off piste in most areas. Make sure to get the combo lift ticket for both Norikura and Cortina.

1. After getting to the top of the lift, drop off the ledge to the left. This area looks like it used to be on piste. There are some old buildings. Fun terrain and good snow.

1. Instead of dropping immediately into the above area, you can hike up the ridge for awhile and drop in further out. Make sure to come back or you'll end up in a valley under the neighboring resort.
2. Maybe you can jump out of bounds here to connect from Cortina to Norikura.
3. It may be possible to go backside here, but I have no idea what getting back is like. The top of this lift is actually facing the backside of the mountain, but it is hard to tell with this map. Backside has potential becuase of that lift.
4. Maybe?
5. I think you can navigate this ridge.
6. The strips of trees in this area are all dense and very steep. Looks fun.
7. Maybe you can drop in anywhere at the top off this bowl.

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There's a lot to explore here.

1. This area is great. You can't really access it from the right side of the map (too steep and overgrown), so drop in from the left branches of the yellow line. Or maybe you could hike up and hit the gultch from the beginning but I haven't tried that. Avoid going all the way into the gultch. There will probably be branches across it. There were some holes and pits last I went too. You'll eventually get sucked into it of course and need to climb out towards the end.
2. Part of this is an on-piste snow field. You cant access the #1 yellow from here.
3. Riding in and out of the piste. Lots of drop offs as you cross the piste. Don't land on any beginners!

1. As said above, the bottom of this gultch is treacherous.
2. Interesting, but point of no return is close by.
3. Flat flat flat.

1. It looks like fun to hike up here and head skiier's right. Haven't tried yet though.

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That upper area alone made my trip worth it. Park at the Akakura Kanko area, not the Akakura Onsen area. The parking lot at the Kanko half is so big, nice, and on-piste. Actually, don't even bother going near the Onsen (right on the map) half of the mountain in general. The highest peak on the map is Mt. Myoko at 2454m. It wasn't a clear day, so I couldn't look up the mountain to see if it was worth trying to climb up or not. If you have mountaineered Myoko, please contact me (taylor@veltrop.com)

1. Easy lift access! Left Path: Gaurentees you won't get stuck in snow or a stream by staying above the gulch. Center Path: You won't get stuck in snow, but if there isn't enough snow the stream may still be exposed. There are also some branches going across the gulch. Right Path: The longest but has a mix of short flats and hills before getting to the gulch, so you may get stuck.
2. Regular under the lift skiing. If you came out of the yellow 1 area, it's actually difficult to get here.

1. Don't go near this area. This resort makes it so easy to get here, but it takes so much time to go back.

1. I don't remember this spot well enough offer solid advice, but it's doable.
2. I can't remember clearly where I went off-piste here. Make sure to get back to the run before getting to the red 1 area!

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Overall, fairly flat with slow trees. If you have to stop you will probably get stuck. The highest peak on the map is Mt. Myoko at 2454m.

1. Nice fresh snow. You can access this area from lift 3 or 6. The above video is from this area, accessed by lift 6. Trees aren't very dense, but if there isn't enough snow you will be running over bushes. Stay above the valley to skier's right, don't go in it. It looked like a killer climb out, and there are branches across it blocking the path.
2. Not as fresh. This line takes you on and off the piste as you cross catwalks. I think there was a nice drop off or two. The trees were dense at the bottom edges so keep an eye out for the beginners on the catwalk who you will be dropping in on.
3. Great snow, but towards the bottom a little too slow for deep powder. Trees had good distribution and not bushy, but the lower ditches had some branches across them. You can cut into this area at almost any point. Don't go in any of the valleys towards the top, they will force you out onto the other side of the mountain. The ditches towards the bottom are ok, but you have to climb out. I marked my climb in dots. It may be possible to continue; I have a feeling it will go to the parking lot if you are lucky, or to a road if you went too far skier's left.
4. Well ridden snow. Short typical under the lift riding. Maybe fresher if you duck in and out of the trees there, but the trees in that area were quite dense. Nice if you parked at that lift.

1. A deep bushy ditch that has too many tree trunks crossing it. Also an irritating climb out.
2. Don't go too far left here, you might end up in the next valley over.
3. On the map they labeled this area as a fun on-piste woodsy area, but I gaurentee you that it isn't any of those things. But maybe you could go off-piste and to the parking lot.

1. This place seems ideal for hiking to the top, but I haven't done so yet. In fact, the center darkened line is mostly over an old on-piste run. There's even an old unserviced lift accessing it. If you have any information, please contact me (taylor@veltrop.com).

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Good place!

1. This is a great area to climb to. After you hike out past where the top lift takes you, you will need to drop down into a valley and climb back up on the other side. The image on the header of this page is actually from near the peak. You don't even need to climb up all the way to the peak. There should be plenty of fresh snow to ride within the first few hundred feet. There's some nice cornices and small bowls at the top.
2. Very fun! There's myriad ways in, out, and through trees here. Under lift H there's a nice cliff that you'll see on the way up. When you come out of the trees there's still some good cruising left.

1. If you do go all the way to the top be warned: stick skiers right on the way back. Theres a few bowls towards the bottom left of this area that are unescapable once you are in. It wouldn't be a problem except that one or two of these bowls end at a cliff with a several meter wide fissure going very deep. The other side of the fissure is at least three meters lower, so that's a lot of distance and height to deal with. You may be able to see the cliffs and bowls as you climb up.
   Those spots are huge avalanche hazards. If you ride laterally across the bottom of this bowl and slice through crust in an attempt to get out, you may cause an avalanche in the right conditions. If you do experience an avalanche here, you need to go for it and jump over the fissure before the snow comes or be buried deep in the chasm after it pushes you over into it. At least in this case the fissure will contain most of the snow coming down so the other side is relatively safe.

1. It's possible to ride this, but you'll need to take a brief walk up to the ridge at the beginning. Don't know about riding it down into the deadzone on the right side of the map, but going left on the map takes you back to the trail.
2. Think you can play in here, but it looks like a lot of climbing and getting stuck.

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I recently tried to go to Seki Onsen becuase Snow Japan reported it as having the most snow in Myoko. Unfortunately I never made it.

After my GPS couldn't help me find the right road to access it, I went into a store in the Akakura/Ikenotaira neighborhood for help. The guy said that if I want the biggest snow, I should actually go to Tsubame Onsen. He also said that neither place was very special and that I should just go to Ikenotaira.

So he gave me this map, and I tried to access Tsubame coming from the Ikenotaira area. Unfortunatly the roads I tried to access were both blocked off. They are marked with the big red X's on this map. The left one seemed to go on-piste! The right one was plowed, but had a pile of snow barrier blocking it. I gave up and headed to Suginohara becuase it was getting late.

As it turns out, and as is clearly marked on the map those two roads are closed for the winter. Too bad I didn't notice the label or translate it until after I realized what was going on...

I'm not sure what the deal is with Tsubame, there doesn't seem to be an official website for it.

If you want to try these places out, get off at either the Myoko IC or the next IC north, marked in yellow. Then take road 18 and head west where the yellow arrows indicate.

Tsubame Onsen is the left blue circle, Seki Onsen the right.