Overview
The Tenjindaira Ski Resort has been somewhat of a well kept secret relative to the sea of high profile Japan ski resorts. The Tanigawadake Tenjindaira Ski Resort is a mouthful, so it’s not surprising that the locals just call it Tenjin.
Description
Tenjindaira is renowned for receiving massive amounts of snow! Tenjin daira in the ancient Japanese language means “powder paradise”. OK maybe that’s not quite truthful, but “Tenjin” does mean a “sky or weather god”. And Tanigawadake Tenjin certainly gets the weather in full force – all that snow doesn’t come from fine weather!
Meanwhile, the Tanigawa-dake backcountry that’s easily accessible from the Tenjin Ski Resort is simultaneously famous and infamous. There is a huge range of backcountry terrain ranging from mellow trees to super steep chutes and cliffs. The legendary mountain offers snow porn at its best, and associated with the avalanche of hype about the terrain are well….. avalanches. The risks are high and one of the main lines, Nishi Kurosawa aka Tenjin Bowling Alley or Avalanche Gully, is very aptly named!
After heading up the Tanigawadake ropeway (gondola) you get to the actual Tenjindaira Snow Resort, which is very small. It only has 9 courses, some of which are groomed, and 3 pair lifts. The middle lift at Tenjin Flat as the name suggests offers novice terrain. One of the services of the lift one intermediate run, whilst the other chair lift offers an ungroomed bowl for strong intermediate to advanced riders. The official trail stats are 30% beginner, 40% intermediate and 30% advanced, but you can pretty much ignore the statistics because they mean very little!