Sumikawa Snow Park — Attraction in Zao

Sumikawa snow part is a great place for beginner and intermediate levels. The courses aren't too long, but not too short either. It has 3 lifts and about 6 groomed courses with some off course runs you can do if you're intermediate to advanced. It's also a snow park, so towards the bottom, when you get off the first lift, the are lots of ramps for jumping, rails, flat boxes and a few other additions as the snow starts to stack up. The snow park is easy to get to by car or by bus reservation from Sendai station. You have to call to make the reservation and the staff only speak Japanese. The bus leaves sendai station at 8:20 am and arrives there around 10:30am. It would've been nice to have an online reservation system with google docs. This way you can avoid the language barrier if you dont speak Japanese and it gives you an idea on how packed the bus will be for the day you want to go. You must call to reserve before 4 pm the day before you want to go, because that's when the park closes. There is no night riding like neighboring resort Eboshi or Spring Valley which you can see as you're on the bus heading there, but the price is cheaper here because of that. There are also tours you can take in the cat tractors or go snow shoeing to see the Zao Okama crater. About a 3 or 4 hour hike one way. One thing to note is that the Miyagi side of the Zao mountain range is cloudy more often than the Yamagata side. Overall it's a good mountain, cheap and easy to get to if you're in sendai. Oh, and there is a bus that will take you to an onsen town around 1:30 and will pick you up on its was back to...

Visited for snowshoe hiking. The rental prices were reasonable and the lift tickets are about what you'd expect. The staff were friendly and knowledgeable about the gear and the trails. Start early if you are hiking, as the trip took longer than we expected. It's an easy course for people with snowshoe hiking experience, but if you don't have any experience or only have regular hiking experience (me)...it's not exactly a beginner course. The views along the trail are breathtaking and totally worth the effort to make it to the shrine at the top of the mountain. Pictures simply don't do it justice. Weather conditions will greatly affect your hike, so plan for a sunny day and hope the...

The snow park was great. The courses are perfect for beginners to intermediate level skiers and snowboarders. There are a lot of unique paths that connect the courses to make every run different and exciting. The difficulty curve is perfect, not to hard for beginners and not to easy for intermediate snowboarders. There is also a really good snowboard park with a good variety of jumps and some grinds. The cost is very affordable, and the slopes always have a good snow base. One thing to be careful about is the road to Sumikawa. It's very twisty and can be covered with some snow in February, making it slippery. So drive safe...