Tegatayama Ski Area Closed

Tegatayama Ski Area was a city-run slope inside Tegatayama Park near central Akita. In December 1910, Professor Michiaki Nagai of Tokyo Higher Normal School taught Norwegian-style two-pole skiing here, so it is regarded as the birthplace of modern skiing in Tohoku. The first Akita Prefecture ski championships were held here in 1926, and a 40 m jump hosted contests between the old middle schools. With three short slopes of up to about 200 m, a rope tow and a hut, it was the city's biggest ski area, drawing up to 5,000 people a day, and local schools used it for ski lessons until the Taiheizan ski area opened in 1973. It later closed, and its rope tow was moved to Taiheizan.