Ciao Ontake Mount Resort
A gondola-served resort on the northern slopes of Mount Ontake, opened in 1998 and never reopened after the 2017-18 season; its lifts still hang there with the chairs on.
- Region
- Gifu Prefecture
- Country
- Japan
- Status
- abandoned
- Year opened
- 1998
- Year closed
- 2018
- Reason for closure
- Visitor numbers fell away after the 2014 eruption of Mount Ontake, which killed 63 people on the mountain and made it a place the public avoided. After closure announcements the resort managed only weekend operation in early 2018 and then never opened again.
History
Ciao Ontake Mount Resort opened in 1998 on the northern slopes of Mount Ontake, in Takayama City in Gifu Prefecture - a modern, gondola-served area running from a 1,810 m base to a 2,190 m summit, 380 m of vertical over five courses with a longest run of 2,300 m and a steepest pitch of 34 degrees, rated 38 per cent beginner, 51 per cent intermediate and 11 per cent advanced. Its problem arrived on 27 September 2014, when Mount Ontake erupted without warning and killed 63 people on the mountain, the deadliest volcanic disaster in Japan since the war. Visitor numbers dropped away that season and did not come back. The resort announced its closure, ran on weekends only in early 2018, and then shut for good after the 2017-18 winter. As of October 2022 everything was still standing, chairs included, on lifts that have not turned in years. Course names are not recorded in accessible sources. The coordinates mark an aerialway station recorded within the resort footprint in OpenStreetMap.
Lifts
| Name | Type | Manufacturer | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Unnamed lift | Gondola | 1,967 m gondola, the main lift; left in place after closure | |
| Unnamed lift | Chairlift - Double | 834 m pair lift | |
| Unnamed lift | Chairlift - Double | 568 m pair lift | |
| Unnamed lift | Chairlift - Double | The third of three pair lifts, later rested |
Sources and further reading
More in Japan
Location
35.9256, 137.4995