Gassan Opens With World’s Deepest Snow — 950cm and Counting
Updated April 30, 2025: Japan’s winter wraps up—but Gassan opens with 950cm (380") of snow, the world’s deepest.
- Final Turns! Most Japanese Resorts Enter Closing Weekend
- Blizzard Shuts Lifts at Gassan Despite Epic Conditions
- Spring Heat Hits Slopes, But Some Terrain Still Hanging On
- Happo One Leads Japan for Late-Season Skiable Terrain
JAPAN REPORT
A tale of two seasons in Japan, with many of the country’s big resorts entering their final week of operations with very limited terrain still open in their upper mountains. At the same time, the country’s Gassan (600/950cm / 240/380”) summer ski area has opened for 2025, posting the deepest accumulation of snow reported anywhere in the world this year. Gassan typically starts with a huge snow depth built up through the previous winter (this year being one of the best starting numbers of recent seasons), then keeps skiing on it through May and June and hopefully into July, as it melts away while temperatures climb. This week, it has been fully open most days, but strong winds did lead to lift closures going into the weekend. These also brought blizzard conditions, which led to closure last Thursday to dig out the lifts.
It’s the final weekend of the season coming up for most other Japanese ski areas that have been open through the winter, with the country’s Golden Week currently in full swing. A few, like Shiga Kogen (10/170cm / 4/68”), plan to keep some terrain open later into the latter half of May, though. For now, Happo One (0/310cm / 0/124”) has the most terrain still open in Japan, with about 16km (10 miles) of its slopes still skiable—around a third of its terrain.
JAPAN FORECAST
A dry and mostly sunny end to the week for most areas of Japan. Temperatures get above freezing even in the small hours on the highest slopes. Daytime highs are around +20°C at resort bases and +10°C on mountaintops.
