Sanbe Onsen Ski Area Closed
Official name さんべ温泉スキー場
Shimane
Open 1961–2009
Sanbe Onsen Ski Area, also known as Higashi-no-hara Ski Area, lay on the grassland on the eastern foot of Mount Sanbe in Oda, Shimane, on the east slope of Mount Ohira. Oda City opened it in 1961 and a city corporation ran it. It had three pair lifts, night skiing on Saturdays and, until 1999, a winter fireworks show on the slopes. In the 1980s it drew around 100,000 skiers a season, but thinner snow and more competition cut numbers sharply, and it closed in 2009. One lift now runs as the Sanbe sightseeing lift for hikers outside winter, and the former restaurant became the Iwami Winery in 2018.
History of Sanbe Onsen Ski Area
- Opened
- 1961
- Closed
- 2009
- Operators
- Oda City (builder and owner), Oda City Recreation Facilities Management Corporation (operator)
- Why it closed
- Visitors fell from about 100,000 a season in the 1980s to about 7,000 in 2009, blamed on less snow and more competing ski areas.
- The site today
- One lift was removed, one left derelict and one (built 1977, 856 m) runs as the Sanbe Sightseeing Lift outside winter (operated by Iinan Total Support since November 2021); the former restaurant building became the Iwami Winery in April 2018, with a vineyard on the site.