Cupid Valley aka Stupid Valley is good for building a snowman (yukidaruma) but that’s about it. Don’t waste your time (you must be thinking by now that we just want to keep this little secret to ourselves)! OK we’re exaggerating because Cupid Valley is OK, but there are much better spots in Nagano and Niigata for fall-line off-piste skiing. And perhaps it just seemed lame after spending a few absolutely epic days at Madarao.

We drove from Madarao via some very scenic hilly roads (with ridiculously low speed limits), and as advertised, there was barely anyone there and no gaijin except for us. With regards to off-piste skiing, we had the most fun off the top quad chair lift and the snow was very nice. A lot of fossicking was required because there isn’t a consistent face with fall line skiing. The terrain was interesting with lumps and bumps, but it was early season and we imagine that with more snow base the ski area would flatten out further, making it particularly boring.

Looking at Mt Hishigatake is enough to get a powder hound panting with its steep trees (which we were really eyeing off) and some gnarly terrain, but we could only look at it. We’re usually good at hunting powder discretely away from prying eyes, and we tried to access the terrain from the back but there were dibber dobbers and it wasn’t long before they rang ski patrol.

We also explored lots of terrain on the side of the resort (we didn’t get sprung doing that) and that was a waste of time.

In essence Cupid Valley has a few of the key ingredients for a powder hound destination: plenty of snow; low skier traffic; lots of fresh lines; but not excellent terrain. There are a couple of resorts nearby that stack up much better than Stupid Valley.

You can also see the Cupid Valley overview for more on our thoughts on the pros and cons.
See our video here