SerreChe
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Posts posted by SerreChe
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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.
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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.
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They found him btw
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1cm looks about right for the car next to yours hey?
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.
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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.
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 height.
Typically wet, heavy snow at the start of the season will collect on the sasa leaves and bend the shaft until it's horizontal with the snowpack. The next snowfall typically buries it and then bye bye sasa.
With the rain events, the sasa has bounced back and now the shaft is buried up to half way. With the reduced flexibility in the shaft it's going to take a lot more snow to bury the sasa fully.
Hope that makes sense.
And anyone that doubts how much snow falls in this area please feel free to join me shovelling and snow blowing before I head to the slopes and/or when I get home
Thanks for that. Not keen on the shovelling, been doing enough of that myself.
The rain events make sense to me. Bad luck really as Hokkaido is supposed to have lower temps.
The moisture content bit I am not so sure tbh. Niseko is very close to the ocean.
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Where abouts in Yuzawa was there 40cm?
You could go round and round in circles on this forever quite easily. Best not to waste time doing that, I reckon!
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'.
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Thanks SJD, our posts are criss-crossing each other. Had not see your answers when I posted. Cheers for that.
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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 winds blew it all up onto my hood! :-)
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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. Thanks.
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"Lucky boys" insurance isn't going to get him home...UpdateNON-FATAL AVALANCHE ON MT. YOTEI
Details are not complete but this is what I've been told.
Two seasonal workers from Australia were caught in an avalanche on Mt Yotei yesterday whilst descending from close to the summit ridge line.
A large gully slid and caught one skier whilst a second avalanche was triggered and caught the other skier.
The skier caught in the secondary avalanche suffered no injuries.
However the skier caught in the primary avalanche was carried approx 750 m and came to a stop buried up to the shoulder.
He was rescued by his party who were aided by a Japanese firefighter out on the volcano.
He was airlifted off Mt Yotei by helicopter and treated in hospital for two broken femurs and a compound fracture of the tibia.
The operation last night was a success and the skier is doing well.
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 he got the opportunity to ski Yotei I know he wouldn't hesitate. If the worst happened, I'd want him home.
On the flip side, I've recently heard a story of a women who danced with a tree off piste in Niseko resulting in a life threatening head injury and a few weeks in Sapporo Hospital - their insurance was comprehensive and they have been covered for everything so far, currently transport home is being organised.
Check your insurance!
I am surprised he had to pay 100k, that sounds a bit over the top. Nevertheless this is a very good thing to point out. I am yet to find an insurance in Japan that truly covers backcountry activities. Some of them actually sell themselves as such but once you read the fine print then you realize that they barely cover anything. I have also searched for overseas cies to cover in Japan but to no avail as I reside here. On the other hand for travelers to Japan from overseas then your insurance may cover you. Defo check the fine print or try to find out from ppl who've had to actually use them in the past. Insurance always sounds great until you actually have to use it...
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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...
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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 slabby so it would be shocking to me that somebody would suffocate after falling into one but I guess nothing is impossible. As for trauma, I could understand, but people would have to hit pretty hard, and 2 on the same day? So at the end of the day I think we lack a lot of details. I think a lot of people would like to have more details, not to ratchet up the fear factor or because they have a morbid curiosity but to learn from what happened. I am gutted for those poor souls that lost their lives but I would like to respectfully learn from these incidents as well.
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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 cracks.
People will deal with these changing circumstances according to their own risk tolerance.
If somebody thinks it is all overblown and safe then by all means go ahead and ski/ride as per normal.
For the others, good on you for trying to learn more.
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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 seperate incidents).
So the fact that you do not hear about something does not mean it is not dangerous.
* Keep asking questions and educating yourselves
* Ignore those who talk down beginners and are afflicted by the 'expert superiority' syndrome
I'd rather hit the BC with a beginner who has the right attitude than an 'expert' who thinks he's seen it all and thinks everybody else is s***
* Take with a grain of salt comments about an area from people who have a vested commercial interest in said area.
* In the end you'll have to adjust your equipment to weather / partners / terrain / local knowledge.
* Test and pratice and see what works for you
Good luck.
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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.
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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 not be able to avoid it unfortunately. So for areas with lift-served access to terrain where they may be present and which you cannot see from the lift maybe one way to go about it is to have one recon run at lower speed check out the area.
The inner walls of a glide cracks are usually frozen solid. This adds to the potential for trauma if falling into one. So a helmet would be useful for protection. Typical glacier gear such as ice screws could work into the frozen sidewall but probably a bit of an overkill. A small short rope with a partner building an anchor for you on the outside in the soft snow to get out is probably enough (from my experience). If you ride by yourself then an ice axe or crampons maybe useful as well to get out but I have never tested that.
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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.
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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
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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.
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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.
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with you mick.
Where was that photo taken?
That looks very much like the Continental Divide at Sunshine Village. Fun little run if you're on skis.
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norcal, Venture & Elan should have what you're looking for. Good luck.
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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!
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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) from the bad rep. The foreign influx has brought so much to J ski towns, it is a shame those guys have to put-up with that nasty side-effect.
Side-note: Mamabear, do you need as a mum (and therefore a role model) to get completly hammered in order to have a good time? Your kids are for sure going to think that it is ok to get plastered on a regular basis.
As for DTrain, I am amazed at the self control he is showing when confronting the yobs given his potential to inflict severe harm in retaliation. Sounds like a bona-fide badass, but isn't his presence the clear symptom that there is something wrong going on with this town (not that I wish Dtrain to loose his job)? Sounds like he could easily get another job in haks now anyway...
And yes, once again the minority is giving a bad name to those who behave and are respectful of others. But I have to say, whereas other countries would seem to have maybe 5% of idiots, somehow some country well represented on the Japanese slopes seems to have more like 10-15%....and my oh my, when it comes to knuckle-dragging...Those guys are on a completely different level! oii oii oii indeed....
I am all for super harsh penalties, but not blindly applied. Human beings are naturally selfish, and unless they see consequences to their actions they will keep on behaving the same way (and not just in N).
I am now ready for the wave of schllllllaking from the N crew for daring to make such politically incorrect statements. Bring it on boys!
Happy Australia Day to all from down under
in Snow talk, trip reports, Japan avalanche & backcountry
Posted
This is pure awesomeness, please keep going.