just saw on NHK news an avalanche at Tsugaike
at least 3 rescued

2 women unconscious
1 man conscious

can hakuba peeps confirm?

be safe out there everyone

apparently it was on the rikkan course of the resort

Saw the ambulances coming in around 4 this afternoon at Tsugaike. Dont know any more than that.

The news will show more than I know but.
The south face main I think went and slid to the cat track. Actually the papers confirm this. Either just past the dbd rope or the next meadow chute over ripped.

Yestereday everything sluffed as the snow was 3%water content on
top of another cold snow but not as dry. Made for some great skiing but only in dense woods and sking off fall line as to let the sluff run.


A full report will come out after patrol with (police and JAN maybe!)inspect the crown fracture. My best guess is skier triggered but that is a pure guess, pure guess.
The Hakuba BC snowpack is not stable at the moment at all! If you really have no clue about lines, areas, ski safty or etc then stay within the ropes untill things settle down a bit!

The paper says one of the girls in a coma died this morning. She was only twenty.

It says the group that got hit included two supply teachers. The report implies that they ignored a "do not enter" sign at the entrance of the course that got hit because it was the only beginner route down the mountain.

Whatever the circumstances, its a tragic outcome.

OTARI, Nagano -- A female university student who had been in a coma after being hit by an avalanche at a ski field here died on Monday morning, while another female student remains in a coma, police said.

Investigators are questioning two ski instructors who held a lesson for seven students including the two in an off-piste zone at the Tsugaike Kogen ski ground in Otari, Nagano Prefecture, on Sunday afternoon, on suspicion of professional negligence resulting in death and injury.

Aki Ogi, 20, a sophomore student at Aichi University from Toyohashi, Aichi Prefecture, died on Monday morning, while another sophomore, Mayu Otake, 20, from Chiryu, Aichi Prefecture, remains in a coma.

The two fell unconscious after being trapped in an avalanche while taking a ski lesson at the Tsugaike Kogen ski field at around 2 p.m. on Sunday. The group was part of 79 students who were to take part in the university's ski lessons slated to be held between Thursday last week and Monday.

Rescue officials said the off-piste zone where the two instructors held the lesson was prone to avalanches. On Sunday, approximately 20 centimeters of snow fell in the area.

Instructors took them to a closed area?!

Unbelievable
Why would instructors be teaching beginners that it's okay to ignore the signs even if the area had been safe and closed for another reason?

That's a horrible set of events if it turns out to be true. If it were people ducking ropes of their own volition then it would really be their own fault, but a beginner placing their trust in an instructor who then leads them into a closed zone... what a miserable situation.

Copied from the Hakuba Now Page:

You may have already heard of the avalanche that happened at Tsugaike Ski area. This was a slide on the resort that slid from permanently closed terrain and ran across the cat track that was also closed do to avalanche hazard. There was a group of beginner snow boarders that ducked the rope into the cat track and was struck by the size 2.5 slide on the cat track. All people were found however 2 of the victims were taken off the mountain yesterday in comas and all reports state that they are still in coma.

The lesson to be learned here is that signs posting avalanche danger mean it! Stay out of these areas as it is not just yourselves that you are putting at risk it is others on slopes below as well.

According to Japan Today the two "instructors" were university lecturers.

The second girl died last night.

Both their parents must be heartbroken. Two weeks after seijinshiki as well.

they were part-time lectures from what I saw...thats just stooopid I saw him giving his spew last night and just got angrier and angrier the more I watched it.

Very very sad.