NISEKO NEWS
By Thomas Shomaker
Photos Niseko Tokyu Grand Hirafu
A mountain bike course is coming back to Grand Hirafu this summer, accessible via the resort’s gondola lifts.
This is the first time since 2019 that the resort will have summer gondola service, enabling mountain bikes to be brought to the start of the mountain biking course that features both steep and gentle slopes, as well as an area where beginner and intermediate riders can hone their skills.
The gondola and mountain bike course will open on 13 July and run through 23 September from 9am – 4pm.
Tickets prices start at JPY1,200 (US$8) for a single adult gondola lift, continuing to a four hour pass at JPY3,500 (US$23.33) and an all day pass for JPY5,000 (US$33.33).
There are also season passes for JPY20,000 (US$133.31). All children’s tickets are half price.
In reopening summer gondola service and designing the mountain bike course, Grand Hirafu Resort joins many other companies and organisations that are developing Niseko green season activities.
On 16 September, NAMBA (Niseko Area Mountain Bike Association) opened the Twin Peaks Bike Park, a 12.5km mountain biking course that is meant to be the first part of an eventual masterplan that hopes to connect the area’s five ski resorts, as well as housing developments and nearby towns, with trails.
Other green season initiatives include the 2022 opening of Hanazono Resort’s Zipflight, Japan’s longest zipline and several tree-trekking adventure parks that opened in the few years ahead of Covid.
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