You’ve come to Niseko’s Grand Hirafu with five of your best mates, you’re all shredding down the mountain together, you get to the bottom, and realise it’s a quad-chair…. “Sorry Geoff, we’ll meet you at the top, mate.”
Well, good news for all the Geoff’s out there – as of December 2025, Niseko Tokyu Grand Hirafu’s ‘King Quad Lift #3’ will be reborn as a brand spanking new 6-seater high-speed lift, allowing up to 600 more passengers to get up the mountain per hour.
Pair that with heated seats, a loading carpet station for the young ones, and the previously announced news that Center Four will be upgrading its infrastructure to a 10-person gondola, and it seems Niseko is gearing up for a full mountain makeover, offering visitors improved infrastructure and even more beginner-friendly chairlifts.
Construction of Grand Hirafu’s new Ace Gondola is currently underway, with the 10-seater set to be unveiled in November of this year, while the new King Quad #3 lift will begin construction at the conclusion of this upcoming winter.
If you’ve still been umming and ahhing about coming for a shred next winter, Grand Hirafu has now announced its resort opening dates, so if you don’t have anything planned on the 30th of November, maybe it’s time to start looking into flights…
