Amihari Onsen: cheap, quiet, and better as the powder day goes on

Amihari is a small ski resort on Mount Iwate, 40 minutes from Morioka, where the locals mostly stay on the piste. When it starts snowing hard and the light goes flat, they usually head for the onsen, and the trees between the runs are left to those who are willing to brave the weather. It can snow so heavily here that your tracks from the previous lap have filled in by the time you come back round.

It is very cheap: ¥4,500 for a day pass, and one of the easiest places to try tree skiing for the first time. There's easy pickings right beside the pistes, the pitch is gentle, and there's nobody else there competing for fresh tracks.

The mountain

The map shows four lifts and seven courses. The reality is three old, slow chairs to the top, one lift that barely turns, and three ways back down joined by long looping traverses, some of them wide and scenic enough to be worth skiing for their own sake. It is a long ride up and a long run down, and there is no route-finding to speak of: whichever chair you pick feeds you into trees on one side or the other. Go too deep in and you can easily lose your bearings, but the resort is small enough that the base is never more than a few minutes away.

The trees are the point. The evergreens are open and forgiving; the bare deciduous trees close in and get tight. Two marked pitches touch 35 and 37 degrees, and skiing the edges near those is the way to find the steepest lines. They do not groom every run every day or bash the corduroy right up to the trees, so there is untracked snow on the pistes most mornings before you even need to leave the marked runs.

The one place to stay out of, unless you know exactly what you are doing, is the big bowl over the ridge to skiers' left off the top chair; it is drawn on the map, and it is not the place to follow someone else's tracks.

Snow

Amihari does not seem to publish a season total, and figures are hard to come by. What is on the record is the frequency: on average it snows a little over six days a week in January and just under six in February, so you notice the clear days rather than the snowy ones. Appi Kogen, 30km north, is usually quoted at around 12 metres of snowfall a season, and Geto Kogen, 80km south, around 15; Amihari probably sits a bit below both, but nobody counts.

The hotel

There is one place to stay, the Amihari Onsen Hotel (Kyukamura Iwate-Amiharionsen in Japanese), a short walk from the lift. The rooms are plain, with a toilet and sink but no bathroom; you wash in the onsen. It's good value, around ¥20,000 for a twin or ¥14,000 for a single, including buffet breakfast and dinner. A lot of the guests are older Japanese visitors who never go near the snow and are there purely for the baths and the food, which does not skimp the way some ski-hotel buffets do: someone is actually working a grill and a sushi counter, not just refilling steam trays. With Iwate Kogen next door and Shizukuishi, Hachimantai and Tazawako inside an hour, it also makes a good base for a multi-resort week.

Rental, lessons and lunch

Everything is in one small building by the car park: a rental counter (¥4,000 a day for a set, ¥9,800 for the full turn-up-with-nothing kit), a shop with snacks and some basic gear, and a restaurant upstairs. Check ahead if you need larger boots or longer skis. Lessons are Japanese-only in practice, and snowboard lessons run only at weekends and on holidays. Lunch is ordered from a machine (match the buttons that are in Japanese to the photos on the wall); the ramen is good and a beer is about ¥400.

The feel

Amihari is very quiet and, other than now having snowboarders on the mountain, little seems to have changed in thirty years, which is the appeal. It is unmistakably Japanese, and the few foreign visitors who do turn up are certainly in the minority. For an easy, cheap route into powder and tree runs, it is a good place to start.

Need to know

Lift pass

¥4,500 at the gate, ¥4,050 online. Free for elementary-school age and under.

Getting there

Shinkansen to Morioka, then a 40-minute drive or a 60-minute free shuttle bus. On Google Maps the hotel pin is on the wrong turn; head for the ski-area base.

Rental

¥4,000 a day for a set, ¥9,800 for a full kit with clothing. Ask ahead about larger sizes.

Where to stay

The Amihari Onsen Hotel, around ¥14,000 single or ¥20,000 twin, meals included.

Best for

A first attempt at tree runs, families, and powder turns on a small budget.