SerreChe

How could I miss this thread?! You guys have taken it to a new level This is pure awesomeness, please keep going.

Muika, these are the best avalanche pics I have seen in a while. A friend told me JAN is having some kind of awareness event where people are sending in pics of avalanches via Twitter. I do not know the details but you may want to consider sending them in as those would have great educational value.

Yes, very happy about that. Was weakened (not surprising) and some frostbites on hands but made it out alive. Really great to hear some good news once in a while.

They found him btw

I knew you'd say that Muika. Disclaimer: I do not know at what time the cars next to me parked nor when they decided to wipe the snow off their hood. I actually put my car with one of last season's snow fall in a deep freeze and took it out just for this picture.

I think the moisture content of the new snowfall (density) is the key to this question. Otaru will typically have snowfall with a higher moisture content than that of the Niseko Resort Area. If 10cm of snow falls in Otaru and 10cm of snow falls in my neighbourhood of Higashiyama, once compacted by humans, machines or additional snowfall the snowpack will be higher in Otaru. Plus there have been significant rain events in Niseko that compacted or depleted the snowpack to almost nothing. Otaru may have missed these rain events. The sasa in this area can grow to almost 2m in heigh

Wouldn't want you to go round in circles forever Muika. Back of Stella. Did not measure exactly but 40cm looks about right. My hood is 'bottomless'.

Thanks SJD, our posts are criss-crossing each other. Had not see your answers when I posted. Cheers for that.

Thanks SJD, did not see the running total at the bottom of the page. I'll make sure to check it out going forward. I assume then that the japan-wide depth chart is not live at the moment, it was quite interesting to see how thing stacked-up across regions but I guess it is an enormous amount of effort to collect and maintain. Pie I reckon you just stumbled upon the secret reason for the bottomless conditions there! I understand things can vary widely from place to place. I just cleared 40cm of snow off my car this morning near Yuzawa while Kagura was reporting 15-20cm up top. Guess the

I see Otaru is reporting almost 3x as much depth as Niseko while a gentleman with his own thread on Niseko is saying they've been having almost 5m of snowfalls season-to-date. Obviously snow does pack down, is wind-affected, etc... but I am thinking that after almost 5m the sasa we still see on the pics should be gone. We also know some resorts after a certain threshold under-report. anyway, I was trying to locate the SJ resort rankings per official depth and could not find it anymore. Could somebody point me in the right direction? I am guessing numbers should look much better after today. Th

"Lucky boys" insurance isn't going to get him home...http://www.mycause.com.au/page/56191 Some of you, like me, may want to chip in to help this family get their son home. However the bigger message here for the community (SJ + Niseko + Seasonal Workers Community that is) is to check your insurance policy. If you don't have $100,000 AUD (9.7million Yen) that you can access in pretty short order then you can not NOT afford to have appropriate insurance. It has raised a few questions for me regarding seasonal work and insurance as it will effect my own bearcub this next season - and if

Thanks for the additional information Hado (keeping the hearsay caveat in mind). I had never heard of suffocation incident in a glide crack before in Japan. Obviously it does not mean it's never happened before. I still can't wrap my head around to how unlucky it was to get 2 such incidents on the same day in the same location...

I think nobody questions Niseko's great track record with regards to safety. Accidents have happened and will happen again, same applies everywhere. On the other hand I do not think that most people in this thread are trying to ratchet up the fear factor about the place, it seemed to me more like people trying to get some information on how to be better prepared. I think this is a matter of perception obviously and everybody is different. Regarding the 2 accidents that took place, we still do not know if it was due to trauma or suffocation. The snow that bridges those cracks tends to be sl

Taking the road analogy, in normal conditions then yes, a feak accident should not lead to an irrational fear factor. Now, assume the road due to extraordinary circumstances is iced-up and full of sink holes for the foreseable future. It probably does not hurt to have people informed about the conditions and know how to deal with these specific cirsumstances. Once the road is fixed (say next season) then it is all back to 'normal'. We have to adapt to changes in circumstances. We can't say it is always safe or dangerous, conditions change, and this year there happens to be a lot of glide c

Just a few comments. * I had never heard of a death in a glide crack in Japan before, so 2 deaths on the same day in the same resort in 2 diffrents spots...I was just stunned. Amazingly bad luck. * Glide cracks are everywhere this season due to the early season weather pattern, more than usual (just check Muika's pics of Tenjin for example) * On the other hand I have heard of many fatalities when people fall in creeks/holes with running water and die of hypothermia. * There are many accidents that are not reported on the forums (example of the 2 avie deaths in Tenjin 1 or 2 years ago in

All good comments by MikePow as well about going with people who knwo the area when possible and not blindly following tracks. As for the injured person then yes as MP mentionned, that is a whole new dimension of complexity and preparedness.

Pleasure SurfArthur. They can be hard to detect if it has snowed back over them and they're fully covered. In this case the only indication maybe a very slight depression in the snow surface vs the surrounding area. If you're hiking up before riding down you may be (not always) able to detect them if you pay close attention. If you fall in the consequence will be less dire if you're hiking than falling into one while riding down at high speed. If the crack is still open then it is obviously easier to detect. If you're riding down at high speed though and the cracks is large then you may no

They also tend to (not always) to occur more on convex rolls where the effect of gravity is a lot higher on the lower section than the upper section. Cracks that open up can be very quickly covered up as if nothing was there, especially after events of heavy snowfalls+wind, so they can be very hard to detect. This is the 1st year I see them out there so early in the season.

My thoughts/prayers to the victims and their families, very very sad. Glide cracks have been forming unseasonably early this year. I saw some large ones as early as Jan 1st in the BC following the end of year warm-up. There are a lot of dangers out there besides avalanches. In japan, deep creeks with icy water and glide cracks are just some of them. Having (a) partner(s) is very important when possible. There are unfortunately instances when having beacon/shovel/probe will not be enough. RIP

Sad to say the French are rude, agressive, selfish and uneducated (among other things) and visitors have to adapt to survive. One more reason why I love Japan and its people. God bless them. Terrain of the french Alps with Japanese snow and Japanese people would be heaven (assuming they do not rope-up everything :-) ). In the meantime Japanese terrain with Japanese snow and Japanese people is still heaven to me. Going for another serving with the kids today, yum.

Hi, if you own one pls check your serial # in their website to see if you're affected. Just in case... Some units switch by themselves to search instead of emit after a few minutes. Not been here for a while so not so sure about the current links policy. Feel free to add.

That looks very much like the Continental Divide at Sunshine Village. Fun little run if you're on skis.

norcal, Venture & Elan should have what you're looking for. Good luck.

Mamabear, from what you wrote I can say that I was indeed wrong about assuming one incident reflecting your entire way of life, and I can say I am very glad I was wrong. You are always measured and friendly in your comments as well which is quite refreshing as well. I hope your health problems turn out ok and wish you the best and an endless supply of happy family times. As for the 4-letter word replies, they were expected, anything else would have been surprising. Wow, some people have opinions that differ from you, how intolerable!

hmmm, not sure what is more laughable here... The fact that some foreigners now call themselvels locals or the fact that despite numerous howls of denials (by people with business interests mainly) and pretending that this stuff rarely happens in Niseko it still simmers naturally back to the surface by itself. And yes, now this behaviour and the incidents that go along with them have moved on to Hakuba as well and are kept under wraps (mostly since it seems one of the car thefts are made it onto this forum). I feel sorry for the business owners who suffer as a result (local or foreigners)