Happo-One (Hakuba)白馬八方尾根スキー場

Happō-One is the mountain the rest of Hakuba looks up to — literally. It reared into fame as the men's downhill venue of the 1998 Nagano Olympics, and it still skis like a race hill: a steep, exposed alpine face falling away under the jagged spine of the Northern Alps, with long fall-line courses — Riesen, Panorama, Skyline — that don't let up until the bottom.

This is terrain that rewards good legs. The upper Kurobishi and Usagidaira sections hold real pitch and, on a storm cycle, some of the best lift-served steep-and-deep in the country; the flanks hide tree runs the locals guard. It can bite too — the top gets wind-scoured and closes early in bad weather, so you learn to read the mountain rather than just charge it.

The reward, on a clear morning, is the view: the Hakuba Sanzan standing in a white wall across the valley, arguably the finest panorama from any chairlift in Japan. Down in Happō village, three public onsen — Happō-no-Yu, Mimizuku, Obinata — wait to unknot your legs. Come humble, ski hard, soak well.