Lifts & Terrain
The mountain is accessed from three successive single chairlifts, taking a slow 20 minutes from bottom to top. The terrain at Kitataisetsu is not steep, with each third of the mountain becoming more flat as you descend. The bottom two lifts are accompanied by wide groomed runs which are well suited to beginners and intermediates. The top lift services a series of runs that fan out to the left, and offer an abundance of powder skiing either on or off-piste. Many of the runs are only partially groomed leaving the shoulders of the piste ungroomed for powder skiing.
On the Saturday we visited it was a beautiful sunny day, but really cold. We weren’t really sure how cold it was, but it felt super cold – or perhaps it just felt cold after sitting on a chair lift for 20 minutes leaning against a cold metal bar. The cold was welcome though, as it was keeping a week’s worth of snow, light and pristine.
For the Intermediate / Beginner The bottom two lifts provide wide groomed runs which are well suited to beginners and intermediates.
For the Family / Kids There are no specific facilities for children and the single chair lifts without safety restraints will not be suitable for young children. For older children, there are some benefits to the first two lifts only having runs that are clearly visible from the lifts – no one will get lost.
For the Shredder There is no park and not many natural drop-offs.
For the Advanced skier/For the Powder Hound If you take the very short walk up the hill to the right, all the off-piste skiing from here on the left hand side (skiers’ left) is a case of all runs lead down. For such a small resort, there’s an abundance of powder to be had on the runs or in amongst the trees. With more staff than skiers/snowboarders at Kitataisetsu, you can continue to find lots of freshies at the end of the day. This is a great place for those learning to rip up the powder, but it also has more challenging skiing in amongst the trees for more advanced skiers. All the runs have a great fall-line (ie no camber) and there are no cliffs, valleys to walk out of, or traversing.
We experimented with some out-of-bounds skiing to the skier’s right of the second lift. There are some very steep pitches in along the ridge here, but not a lot of vertical before you have to traverse back around toward the lift, and a short flat walk-out. As an alternative when you ski on the right of the second lift, it’s questionable as to whether you’re in or out of bounds, and there’s some great powder skiing down open “runs” and an old lift line.