Senhata Ski Resort Guide

Senhata WAS a good spot. I had a season pass there a couple of winters. However, it's lack of attendance (which made it great for me) proved it to be one of the less profitable holdings of the Prince Hotel Group when they restructured a few years ago as the result of a corporate scandal that hit the railway company that owns Prince. Senhata has been closed for a few years now. The infrastructure is there (high speed 8-place gondola, restaurant, etc.) so I can't see it collecting rust too many more seasons before someone buys it. The management sucked. It could have turned a profit, having one of the biggest vertical drops in the region. They had a habit of paying 7 guys to stand around directing traffic in their mostly empty parking lot, and they had zero marketing. Given the fact that they had just a few trails, they could have lighted it easily for night skiing, and they made a very poor effort at putting together a terrain park. So heads up, investors: buy it, light it, put a top-notch terrain park in, and then market the hell out of it to nearby Akita City (pop. 330,000).