Karigahara Ski Area Closed
Official name 雁が原スキー場
Fukui
Open 1956–2020
Karigahara was a small ski hill right next to central Katsuyama, opened in the mid-1950s. Slopes between roughly 220 m and 420 m were served by a quad chair and single chairs, and locals knew it for night skiing, including an all-night session every February, as well as a sledding area for children. In summer the car park hosted motorsport gymkhana. Seasons of heavy snow and then too little snow cut its operating days, and after the warm 2019-20 winter it could not open at all. The operating company went bankrupt in 2020 and the area closed; the lifts were left in place with no plan to reopen.
History of Karigahara Ski Area
- Opened
- 1956
- Closed
- 2020
- Operators
- Katsuyama Kanko Shisetsu (founded 1961, bankrupt 2020)
- Why it closed
- Repeated heavy-snow and low-snow winters cut operating days; the 2019-20 season could not open for lack of snow, and the operator stopped business on 31 Jan 2020 and filed for bankruptcy (debt about ¥280 million).
- The site today
- Abandoned: lifts and night-lighting equipment remain on site without power; a ski media report (2024, updated 2026) says the land is used as an excavation site for the dinosaur museum.