Zao Snow Monsters

Famous for its onsen, its beautiful mountain and as a world-class ski resort, Mt. Zao is also extremely popular among foreign tourists for its magnificent Snow Monsters also called Juhyo in Japanese.

Far from being dangerous, these Juhyo are in fact just frost covered evergreens created by a unique weather pattern combining heavy snow and chilly, often powerful Siberian winds. Indeed it is not rare to have on top of Mt Zao temperatures as low as -25c and winds blowing as much as 95km/h!!!

Unfortunately, despite our best efforts, we had a hard time filming Mt. Zao’s famous Juhyo due to an overall shortage of precipitation in Japan this winter. However, rest assured that next year we will make sure to be on the lookout for more terrifying Juhyo!