For anyone interested in the Tsugaike report that SLOW posted:
Police are still investigating the incident, so there is no official report. From Tsugaike Resort: patrol always confirms that each course is safe before opening the lifts every day. (There is no mention of closed courses or dealing with areas around courses within the resort that might affect the courses set to be open.) Courses deemed to be in danger of avalanches will be closed off by a "????"(Do not enter) sign, not an avalanche warning sign (though I still maintain that some resorts unnecessarily use the latter). They go on to say that they will take preventitive measures so that this will not happen again. And that they maintain a "protect yourself" attitude, perhaps meaning that you are responsible for your own actions rather than being policed by patrol.
Yes, according to the kanji post by Slow there was no "Avalanche Warning" sign posted.
Only a "Keep Out" sign and the entrance was netted off.
It was a group of 9 people. 7 Students and 2 part-time teachers. 7 people passed
beyond the "keep out" sign including the two teachers and were caught in the slide.
Two people didn't make it. I haven't read any detailed interviews but I guess they
just spaced it off instead of deliberately disobeying the signage. I mean two were
teachers right? They probably wouldn't say "Ah screw it, let's fly... Weeee...." if
they were with and responsible for 5 students.
Something I find rather incredible about this though. I've worked at more than a
few ski resorts in snow management and etc. and avalanche conditions are usually
very very obvious. If you're going to open a resort with an unsafe run you always
ALWAYS want to post one or two individuals near the entrance to the dangerous
area! Just posting a sign and putting up a net is entirely irresponsible IMO. I've
never seen that happen before!
Many people just don't look or think the netting is for other purposes - and then
there are kids and stuff.
If this were the USA this would be a huge negligence suit! It may yet be here too.
Simply ridiculous!