The Cupid Valley Ski Resort doesn’t have the same shape as many Japanese ski resorts that sit on volcanoes, whereby there is constant fall line all the way down the mountain. Cupid Valley (aka Stupid Valley) is a series of hills that are undulating that don’t provide much in the way of continuous pitch. And unlike many Japanese ski areas, the terrain either side of the resort doesn’t funnel back to the base of the lifts, so sidecountry opportunities are scant.

Lifts

The gondola runs the full vertical of the ski resort and it drops you off at a flat spot adjacent to Mt Hishigatake. Cupid Valley also has 2 fast quad chair lifts and a slow double chair.

Cupid Valley Snow

It snows a lot at Cupid Valley, but no one collects snow accumulation data to put a figure on it. If nearby ski areas such as Lotte Arai and Charmant Hiuchi that are equally close to the coast with similar elevations are anything to go by, then it could be as much as 13-16 metres of snow per season.

You know the snow is very coastal considering you can see the sea from the top of the quad chair lift, so the powder typically doesn’t fall light and dry. On the plus side, the aspect of Cupid Valley is very conducive to the quality of the snow being well maintained, with many of the slopes facing north to northwest.

Beginner Skiing Cupid Valley

The beginner runs are not that mellow so it’s not the most ideal ski area for novices. Another limitation is that the beginner runs adjacent to the slow double chair are shared with all other ability level riders returning to the base to ride the gondola or quad chair.

For the Intermediate

Despite the trail statistics stating that 60% of the trails are for intermediates, there are only 2 labelled intermediate runs and they only run a fraction of the vertical of Cupid Valley before you have to ride a beginner run. They are not that steep and good for mid-level intermediates, whilst the “beginner” runs are good for low-end intermediates. The “advanced” runs are also very intermediate.

Advanced Skiing On-Piste

The advanced runs (labelled as pink) are mellow, really short and a waste of time.

Off Piste Skiing and Riding

Cupid Valley has limited off-piste skiing because there are so many ups and downs, and fall-line skiing tends to go for only about 5 turns. There are plenty of spots for snowboarders to get bogged, but if you can keep up lots of speed there are fun features, gullies, lumps and bumps on which to play.

Off-piste skiing seems to be tolerated at Cupid Valley.

Sidecountry & Backcountry

Herein lies the disappointment of Cupid Valley. Firstly, either side of the resort doesn’t feed back into the ski area readily. The really delicious looking terrain is the front face of Mt Hishigatake that has steep trees and chutes. Hikes/skins from 960m to 1,291m will get you to the top, or shorter hikes will get you to really good tree lines. The only problem is that ski patrol doesn’t like you heading up there, probably because any avalanche might drop onto the resort. Of course they don’t bother to do any avalanche control, even though naturals could come down onto the piste. It’s very difficult to access this great terrain without half the resort seeing you, and there are too many dibber dobbers.

From the top of the gondola there is a quasi backcountry gate where you can head over the back, but the runs are short and the aspect not ideal.