Geto Kogen is renowned for its snowfall, and topographically it makes sense due to where it sits with no other mountains blocking it from the Sea of Japan. In February 2020 it had the largest snowbase of all the Honshu resorts (except perhaps Hakkoda). Unfortunately we were a day too late to truly capitalize on this as we were at the beginning of a warm spell. There was a little bit of leftover powder and wind blown snow in the trees, but as temperatures rose to +5c by mid afternoon, the snow quickly turned sour and too sticky to even move unless on a groomer.

On a powder day, I can see the potential for loads of fun in the trees, however the gullies can't be overstated. Much of the terrain underneath and to skier's left of Gondola 2 traps you in a ravine that you could easily spend all day trying to climb out of, especially in deep snow. We were super fortunate that a local spotted us from the trail and yelled at us to traverse right lest we get stuck in the gully from hell! So if you plan to go exploring in the woods make sure to bring skins or snowshoes.

On piste was super fun with some wide open groomers coming down from the top of Gondola 1. The quad chair also offers quick laps without the need to remove your gear every time. Lunch at the cafeteria was cheap and tasty. Lift tickets were fairly cheap - I think we paid a little over 4000 yen for a 5 hour ticket which was plenty of riding considering the conditions of the day. Crowds midweek were more or less nonexistent with 3 minutes being the most we ever waited for the gondola. Apart from a tour of Brits we met at lunch, we were the only foreigners on the mountain. English was rather limited in comparison to the more popular resorts but we managed to get by just fine.

We stayed in Kitakami next to the train station as we were on our way back from Hokkaido towards Tokyo. (Side note: the Shinkansen is the BEST way to travel anywhere in Japan. For most destinations it's more convenient and faster than flying when you factor in traveling to the airport, checking bags, going through security, etc. Get your Japan Rail Pass and pay a couple extra bucks for Green Class and you'll have all the legroom and baggage space you could ever need.) With that said we took the free shuttle to the ski area which took about an hour and stopped at a bunch of local places along the way. If planning to spend more than a day at Geto Kogen, I'd recommend staying at the lodge or one of the inns close to the hill. See our video here

Last day of my trip and I couldn't have capped it any better. A couple weeks back the mountain staff threw a "pukiyuki" party for everyone in the main lodge. It was crazy fun. That must have flipped a switch because we had 2 big dumps this week. Today in particular was super dry snow. I could flick every flake off my skis. I couldn't believe there were no crowds either. Midweek at a lot of other resorts would still be packed by tourists, but I guess Geto is tucked away under the radar still. All day was just traversing the top and dropping into beech/stream/summit and getting pitted all the way down. I found freshies the whole day. I got stuck in the waist deep more than once. I'll be coming back for sure. Til next time! See our video here

Geto has an amazing lift infrastructure and when it snows fantastic powder. Great off piste tree runs though they close by 2pm. Not great for nightlife but when your here it’s to charge the powder. See our video here

Had a blast at geto these past 2 days. It was knee to waist deep. No words, just smiles and tons of powder. This is why people love skiing japan. My favorite part was hiking up to the observation point and dropping into summit/beach. The trees create a happy atmosphere. It's hard to explain, so come to experience it too! See our video here

Boarded at Geto these past few days. 2 days ago we had about 30cm of powder and the tree skiing off the recently opened summit and beech areas was prime. So much fun slashing pow through trees. Lots of natural features too. Sho was our guide, really cool dude and and he showed us a natural halfpipe hidden in one of the tree run areas. We lapped groomers today and the courdoroy was so thick, we were railing our edges in and leaving deep carve lines. Great times, great vibes, and great onsen! See our video here

Skied at geto kogen today (Jan 2). Definitely the best day of the season so far. There is a good base even off piste. One of the tree areas (rabbit) was recently opened and I didn't hit anything underneath. I'm sure the other areas will follow soon if you're fiending for some japow. The rest of honshu is really struggling this season so geto is the spot. Today was knee deep of fresh, and light too so face shots were ready to be served! See our video here

Japan as a whole has been having a dry early season. Regardless, Geto is always a good bet for early season because their base is always among the highest in Japan. I'm here right now and Geto currently has the highest base. Most other resorts across Honshu are still closed. The dry spell broke today and it dumped all day. Not a lot of snow was predicted across Japan, but I was mid-shin deep today and the snow is still coming down hard. Because of the solidified base, I was able to have a day full of laughs and face shots of that dry, light Geto pow! I think I'll go relax in the onsen now and watch the snow fall. See our video here

I spent 3 days riding here whilst touring the tohoku region and hit bang on with fresh snow for 2 of the 3 days. Day 1 was abit windy/whiteout and the 1 gondola open was running at half speed so getting laps in was a little slow but in the trees was bliss with very little competition in the summit/shooter areas. Day 2 was more kind with no wind and sunny spells ,fresh snow it was a treat and again spent most of my time in the tree run zones once the on piste fresh was tracked out. Day 3 was a Saturday so the weekend crowds had arrived and with no new fresh snow overnight it became harder and harder to find fresh pow but still found pockets around the resort. The lifts lines were short or non existent with minimal queueing even on the Saturday.
I spent 1 night in the dorm which was great value for the cost (breakfast and dinner included) and used the free bus to and from Kitakami and stayed there a couple nights in one of the business hotels. The free bus was busy on the Saturday - both to and from the station so I suggest you get there a little early to make sure you get a seat.
I will definatley return here! See our video here

Geto Kogen was a lot of fun over the 2 days of our 4-day trip in Tohoku.

First thing to note is that Geto Kogen is prepared for you, Powderhounds friends. From what I gathered, the new GM of Geto is a young, modern thinking guy and he knows that the future of his resort is in Freeski, so a lot of terrain has been developed around it. And there is a lot to play with, for sure.
What that means however is that there is more competition for tracks than anticipated. We went to Tohoku thinking we would be pioneers of freeski almost (lol - much like what it felt like in Myoko 5-6 years ago were only few went offpiste) but everybody just seemed to want to have a piece of fresh pow too. So as snowfalls were 2 days old, we didn't have as many fresh tracks as expected.

To be fair, it looks like it was a huge exception for the season, so don't take my word for it, apparently you're supposed to get Niseko-like snowfalls all day long, which we only saw for half a day...
I would come back to Geto, it was fun. Not amazing, but definetly great. The accommodation we had (nearby hotel - 10min by car) was stuck in 1980s but that was totally part of what made this trip exceptional.
I think we will hear more about Geto Kogen in the next few years as the next big Honshu thing, but I would still not recommend to go there for more than 2 days (max 3 with great conditions).

Sharing here a video of the 4-day trip so there's also shots of Tazawako in that (I also posted a review of Tazawako if you're curious). See our video here

We rate Geto Kogen as one of the best little ski resorts in Japan for powder hounds. We call it the Geto Blaster because it’s hard not to have a blast of a time! Since we first put Geto Kogen on the website it’s become a smidgeon more well known, but it’s still well and truly off the radar of most powder hunters who head to Japan.

It wasn’t a powder day when we visited; instead a rare fine day when it became a little more obvious which aspects faced the sun and which didn’t. It was nice to actually see the hill, unlike the last visit we visited when it was snowing hard and the powder was chest deep (obviously we weren’t complaining!).

There was only one small group of other foreign visitors at Geto but we didn’t even notice them and there was barely anyone else there. We could just do line after line of fresh powder, which was surprising considering it hadn’t snowed for a couple of days. Whilst it mellowed out reasonably quickly towards the base, the terrain was a load of fun and reasonably easy to explore.

They didn’t operate the 2nd gondola, probably because the place was deserted. It was possible to traverse across the top to access the terrain serviced by the 2nd gondola, but the return at the bottom required a bit of a skate back which was hard work for the snowboarder in our group.

We stayed at the Geto ghetto and we were the only group staying there so it was incredibly quiet despite sleeping in such communal quarters. The meals were simple but more than adequate and the onsen was superb. The only problem was that we couldn’t negotiate to get the heating turned down so the place was like a hot box.

See the Geto Kogen overview for more on the pros and cons and also see the Japan ski resorts ratings to see how we rate it against other Japanese ski areas. See our video here