The Skiers' Guide to Rusutsu

Rusutsu is just 3 hills connected with 2 gondolas and several chairlifts. 2 hills comprise the biggest skiing area (East) and the other hill (West) much smaller. You can access both from a big car park on the East side. The ride between the two parts is quite long in a gondola that goes over quite a big valley.

Groomed runs are mostly reds and blues. As the quality of snow is simply exceptional, it is a pleasure to ride these even if not any challenge. It is possible to go off piste and amongst the trees and it is a real blast. The views are also great with the snow encrusted trees under dark laden sky.

The chairlifts are slow and inefficient. It seems Japan has not seen much investment in skiing in the last 20 years. The real point of going there is to experience wonderful snow and tree skiing. If lucky, you'll get deep powder thrown into the mix too, but you have to be quick - everybody is hunting it and it soon gets tracked out. Though you can usually still find some amongst the trees even after all the easily accessible stuff is gone.

Amazing snow quality, incredibly light and powdery and so much if it. Off piste tree runs with nicely spaced out trees at a fun level of steepness everywhere. As the season goes on and the snow keeps on falling the train and features change. Beautiful place and incredible snow quality but also very cold so wrap up warm and cover your face. Most mornings were blue bird with the snow starting to fall a few hours into the day.

Easily accessible and great lift system. Limited terrain and moguls. Enjoyed the number of runs considering the space. Great food and beautiful scenery.

Japow! Worked as a ski instructor for the Rusutsu ski school in the 2015/2016 season, had an amazing season skiing champagne, nipple deep powder! Great night skiing on West Mountain with awesome powder runs and accessible side country/lift accessed tree skiing. Less tracked out than the neighbouring resort of Niseko with quieter pistes 10/10 would recommend!

Quirky Japanese resort with easy to access off piste and usually great powder in season. Transfers from Sapporo and Niseko frequent and efficient. Great for skiers wanting the Japanese ski experience .

Great place for skiers/boarders of all skill levels and there is plenty of options for ski schools and guides with staff from all over the world that speak nearly every language and are among the best in the world. The powder runs here are absolutely unbelievable and on some days it snows so much that a run will never be skied out as it is just constantly being fed snow. I also really love the tree skiing here as the trees are much smaller and thinner than the ones in canada which provide a lot of room to really enjoy the powder and make some incredible turns and tricks whilst still providing a nice challenge withought that worry of smacking into a thick pine tree with low hanging branches. Would definitly say there is a little bit of a lack for food options, Aprés ski and real steep runs but the minimal trafficnon the slopes compared to the niseko resorts and the perfect powder conditions along with the many lift options really do make up for it and as a staff member here i would definitly recommend trying this resort out if you are really powder hungry. Nothing beats that Japow! <3

I really loved the resort when I went in 2023! It was really convenient to go because there was a free shuttle from Sapporo where I stayed in a hostel. From there, the terrain is similar to niseko since theyre about half an hour away from each other, but rusutsu is way quieter. A lot of runs have no one on them, so it was nice to have all that powder to yourself. The one thing I didnt love was the line to get food. I waited over an hour for curry because the line was just super long. I ended up bringing konbini food for the rest of my stay and eating on the lift. Even though I went on a down year, it was still more than enough snow for me. Be sure to explore the highlighted tree areas on the map, there are some hidden gems on the mountain of open powder fields. The way they cut the runs makes it so that you will always come back to a main run