Yokote Park Ski Area Closed
Official name 横手公園スキー場
Akita
Closed in 2022
Yokote Park Ski Area was a city-run hill on the slopes of Yokote Park, the site of Yokote Castle, close to central Yokote and the station. It hosted the first southern Akita ski meet in 1933 and was long used for school ski lessons and by local families. For the city's 30th anniversary it was enlarged and given a single chairlift alongside its rope tow. Heavy rain in July 2017 caused parts of the slope to collapse; the hill never reopened, and in 2018 the city announced it would bring forward its planned abolition. Local ski clubs petitioned to keep it, but it has not reopened.
History of Yokote Park Ski Area
- Closed
- 2022
- Operators
- Yokote City
- Why it closed
- Slope collapses in the July 2017 heavy rain stopped operation. The city's facility plan (2016) had scheduled abolition for 2021; after the damage the city adopted a policy to abolish it early, it stayed suspended (city council newsletter, October 2019), and it was formally abolished in fiscal 2022.
- The site today
- Part of Yokote Park; the former slope is unused (a 2021 photo shows the lodge and the collapsed section), and a city notice reported by local media listed Yokote Park Ski Area as a temporary snow dump one winter.