Feature · 5 min read
Is Kamui Ski Links worth a day from Asahikawa or Furano?
Kamui Ski Links charges ¥5,300 for a day and leaves its tree courses to the snow. We worked out who should spend a storm day there and how to fit it around a base in Asahikawa or Furano.
By Adam BognarPublished
Kamui Ski Links is worth a day for a strong rider on a storm day. Its gated tree courses hold some of the coldest snow in Hokkaido, and an adult day costs ¥5,300, about two-thirds of the 2025/26 walk-up price at Furano. Build the day around Lift 5. It stops at 15:00, and it serves the steepest groomer and both of the seasonal powder courses.
Kamui Ski Links sits in the hills about 30 minutes west of central Asahikawa. Taisetsu Kamui Mintara DMO runs it, and our fact sheet rates it 5 out of 5 for quiet. We compiled this piece from Kamui's own guide, course, price and English pages plus guide sources, and computed the terrain figures from OpenStreetMap run lines and elevation data. Nobody from Ride Hokkaido rode Kamui for it.
| Kamui Ski Links | Furano Ski Resort | |
|---|---|---|
| Top and vertical (published) | 751 m, 601 m vertical | 1,074 m, 839 m vertical |
| Marked piste (our measurement) | About 25.5 km | About 31.4 km |
| North-facing share of named runs (our measurement) | 78% | 19% |
| Steepest 60 m (our measurement) | 31.1° on Dynamic | 31.6° |
| Adult day ticket | ¥5,300 (2025/26, unchanged for 2026/27) | ¥8,000 (2025/26 regular season) |
| Trees and off-piste | Gated tree courses inside the boundary; nothing outside it | Five exits into the forest with a climbing plan |
| Night riding | None | Yes, both zones |
| Main drawback | Lift 5 closes at 15:00 | Higher price and more people |
Why is the snow at Kamui so dry?
Asahikawa's cold keeps the snow dry. In the city the January days average a high of minus 3.3°C and the nights fall to minus 11.7°C, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency's 1991–2020 normals. Snow that lands in that air stays light, and you won't be able to press it into a snowball. Kamui doesn't publish a snowfall figure for the hill. By our measurements 78 percent of its named-run length faces between northwest and northeast, so the snow stays cold for a while after a storm passes.
Where are the tree and powder courses?
The course page lists every gated run with its entry point. Treerun and Bumps start at gates beside Logging Road (Rindo on the Japanese map) and head back toward the gondola base. Treerun is the longest of the gated courses at a published 1.2 kilometres. Todomatsu takes its name from the Sakhalin fir and starts at a gate beside Link (Renraku). Royal Powder is the easiest to find, because it runs through the woods right beside the gondola and tips to a published 35 degrees. Look down into it from the gondola to judge the snow in the trees before you commit.
Deep Powder starts at a gate beside Lift 5, and Fresh Powder drops in from Logging Road. Both open only for limited periods. OpenStreetMap tags nine Kamui runs as gladed. Fallen logs and sudden steps sit under the snow in all of these courses, so keep your speed down on the first lap. The guide page and the English site both state that riding outside the boundary is prohibited, and rescue costs go to the rider.
Why does the 15:00 Lift 5 close matter?
Lift 5 serves the far flank of the hill, where the pitch gets serious. Dynamic is groomed and reaches a published 35 degrees, and we measured 31.1 degrees over its hardest 60 metres. Slalom runs beside it, and Deep Powder and Fresh Powder start up there too. The lift stops at 15:00 while everything else runs to 17:00. Link from the Lift 5 base can't take you back to the gondola, so take your last Dynamic lap with time to ride out.
The rest of the hill suits a mixed group. Gold 2 is a wide groomer with a published 30-degree pitch, and Next Step winds 4 kilometres from the summit so beginners can ride the gondola too. The gondola climbs 2,327 metres to the summit in about eight minutes, and Trattoria Monte751 at the top serves pizza and pasta.
Turn the card over for the facts, or add Kamui Ski Links to a trip.
What does a day cost?
An adult day costs ¥5,300. The price hasn't changed since September 2024, and Kamui lists it again under 2026/27. A 4-hour ticket costs ¥4,600, the 12-point ticket ¥4,300 and a senior day ¥4,500. Children 12 and under pay ¥1,800. Every ticket needs a ¥500 IC-card deposit, and you get it back from the machine when you feed the card in after your last run. The price page says the Hokkaido Ski Season Net card no longer works at Kamui for 2026/27.
The Hokkaido Powder Belt 5-day ticket covers Kamui along with Furano and Tomamu. It costs ¥40,000 for 2026/27 and works from 19 December 2026 to 31 March 2027. Spread over five days it works out to ¥8,000 a day, whichever of the three hills you ride.
How do you get there?
Dohoku Bus route 455 runs from Asahikawa Station in about 40 minutes for ¥1,000, and the same route runs from Asahikawa Airport in about an hour. By car Kamui is about 30 minutes from central Asahikawa and about 90 minutes from Sapporo, and parking is free for 2,000 cars. From Furano the English site gives about 70 minutes by car. Visit Hokkaido lists a reservation-only bus from Furano at about 100 minutes for ¥1,500, so check that season's timetable before you count on it.
Where should you base yourself?
Sleep in Asahikawa and ride Kamui as a day trip. OMO7 Asahikawa has a proper sauna and a desk full of local tips, and JR Inn Asahikawa sits beside the station, which suits the 455 bus. The city pours some of the best shoyu ramen on the island, and the Center House at Kamui serves a bowl of it for ¥1,000 at lunch.
Asahikawa also puts other hills within reach. Santa Present Park is 15 minutes from the station and runs under lights until 21:00, so you can ride again after the Kamui bus gets back. The Asahidake Ropeway reaches 1,600 metres on the flank of Hokkaido's highest volcano for riders who want terrain past a boundary.
Who should skip Kamui?
Park riders should go elsewhere, because Kamui lists no terrain park among its courses. Riders looking for gates into the backcountry won't find them here, and Furano or Asahidake fit that day better. Après is a bowl of ramen and the bus home. A first-week beginner gets more from Furano's two linked zones and its night riding.
How we researched this
In October 2026 we read Kamui's guide, course, price and English pages, the Hokkaido Powder Belt site, Visit Hokkaido and the JMA climate normals for Asahikawa. Prices are adult tickets for the season named. Figures marked as our measurements come from OpenStreetMap run lines with AWS Terrain Tiles elevation sampled every 20 metres. The steepest pitch is the hardest 60 metres of a run, and aspect is the direction a run's longest section faces. We compare our measured figures only with each other.
Quick answers
How much is a day ticket at Kamui Ski Links?
A Kamui Ski Links adult day ticket costs ¥5,300 in 2025/26 and again in 2026/27, and the price hasn't changed since September 2024. A 4-hour ticket costs ¥4,600, and every Kamui ticket needs a ¥500 IC-card deposit that is refunded when you return the card.
Can you ride off-piste at Kamui Ski Links?
Kamui Ski Links prohibits riding outside its ski-area boundary. Its tree and powder courses sit inside the boundary behind expert-only gates, and Deep Powder and Fresh Powder open only for limited periods when the snow allows.
What time does Lift 5 close at Kamui Ski Links?
Lift 5 at Kamui Ski Links stops at 15:00, two hours before the rest of the hill closes at 17:00. It serves Dynamic, Slalom, Deep Powder and Fresh Powder, and riders can't get back to the gondola from the Lift 5 base by Link.
How do you get to Kamui Ski Links from Asahikawa?
Dohoku Bus route 455 runs from Asahikawa Station to Kamui Ski Links in about 40 minutes for ¥1,000. By car Kamui is about 30 minutes from central Asahikawa and about 70 minutes from Furano, with free parking for 2,000 cars.
We write from operators’ and agencies’ own pages, open map data and published research, and we date every fact we check. How we research.