Sky Shishiku
An Ishikawa area with a 43-degree pitch and a gondola, where skiing dated back to the 1920s; the ski operation ended in 2016 but the gondola still runs in summer for paragliders.
- Region
- Ishikawa Prefecture
- Country
- Japan
- Status
- abandoned
- Year opened
- 1960
- Year closed
- 2016
- Reason for closure
- Competition from newer facilities in the region, which forced the area to be scaled back in stages until the last remaining slope stopped taking skiers and snowboarders in 2016.
History
Sky Shishiku (スカイ獅子吼スキー場) stood on the Shishiku plateau in Hakusan City in Ishikawa Prefecture, in what was formerly Tsurugi Town. People had been skiing on the site since the 1920s and the area proper dates from 1960. At its height it ran seven lifts including a 1,073 m gondola, over seven courses from a 170 m base to a 630 m top - 460 m of vertical, a longest run of 2,000 m, and in the Ninonkai Course a pitch of 43 degrees, the steepest recorded for any area in this dataset. Newer resorts in the region drew its trade away and it was cut back in stages until the last slope stopped taking skiers in 2016. The gondola survives: it runs from April to November as Park Shishiku, carrying sightseers and the paragliders who use the plateau, while abandoned lift infrastructure from the ski era is still visible around the site. The coordinates mark the gondola summit station as mapped in OpenStreetMap.
Lifts
| Name | Type | Manufacturer | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Unnamed lift | Gondola | 1,073 m; still operating seasonally from April to November under the name Park Shishiku, serving paragliding and sightseeing | |
| Rainbow | Chairlift | 590 m | |
| Rainbow | Chairlift | 380 m | |
| Dream | Chairlift | 280 m | |
| Dream | Chairlift | 280 m | |
| Unnamed lift | Two further lifts made up the seven-lift peak fleet; their types and lengths are unconfirmed |
Runs
- Ninonkai Course (Advanced)
Sources and further reading
More in Japan
Location
36.4461, 136.6481