Ookuradake Kogen Ski Area – Overview
This is small ski mountain located just outside of Komatsu city. It is very local and, at the time of this writing, there is no English or second language in their website. Visit Ookuradake’s facebook page to view the hundreds of pictures uploaded to give you an idea of the ski area.
Ski Season
In general, this ski areas plans to open from Dec 17th to Mar 17th each year, however, this is of course dependent upon snow conditions. For the 2023/24 season, it opened on Dec 24 and closed Feb 1, 2024. In other years, the hill remained open until late Feb or even mid to late March so Feb 1 is exceptionally early. Snow is really a hit or miss here. You’ll need to ensure you speak with mountain to ensure there is enough snow. Some years this hill can get 4m+ and other years it can be very little.
Hours of Operation
The ski area is open from 0830hrs to 2100hrs Tuesday to Sunday, however, on Sunday’s the hill closes at 1700hrs. That’s right; Ookuradake has night skiing until 2100hrs. Ookuradake Kogen has night skiing! It is open from Tuesday to Sunday and closes at 9pm. If there is skiing in March, there is only night skiing during the week. On the weekends, you can enjoy daytime and night skiing on Saturday and daytime only on Sunday’s.
There are a number of national holidays in which the operating hours could change, including New Year’s from Dec 29 to Jan 3 or so.
Rentals
Yes, there are rentals available and there is plenty of them as follows:
300 sets of skis
80 to 170cm ski lengths
16 to 30cm boot sizes
150 snowboards
90 to 156cm board lengths
18cm to 28.5cm snowboard boots
Helmets are free
There is no ski or snowboard wear available for rent. You will need to bring your own ski wear including goggle and gloves with you.
Facilities
There are 3 main lodges at the foot of the mountain you can use for free.
Lodge 1 can hold about 40 people and is 54 tsubo (1 tsubo = 3.3m3) or about 178m2. It is a great place to use if you bring your own lunch or snacks. The lodge is mainly tatami mat but there are chairs available, too.
Lodge 2 is mainly the ski rental facility.
Lodge 3 is their cafeteria. Their cafeteria seats 100 people and is about 354m2. Typical Japanese ski hill food is served here such as ramen, udon, curry, etc
Hot House – This is a rest area at the summit. There are rental lockers available. You must pay to rest here. It is about Yen 3,000 / hr.
There are 5 parking lots which holds about 476 vehicles. There is a free shuttle service between parking lot 3 and 5 as it is quite a walk.
They have 2 larger and relatively new (2006 and 2016) snow groomers. They also have 2 snowmobiles.