montoya

just revisiting this thread, I met up with a riding mate recently and it turns out the guy that died in the tateyama slide used to be his boss. he talked to the surviving members afterwards (he wasn't there at the time) and said that they were skinning up in poor visibility conditions when the slide caught them all from above. later when visibility improved, there was a skier's line at the top of the slide. they are not sure 100% if that was the cause, but it doesn't look good.

there was a big thread on this topic last year on ttips, here's the link: http://www.telemarktalk.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=5294

nope, it's one of these spatulas: he's pretty lucky that's the only thing he lost.

yep, he's a skier, nope I don't think you know him. he lost one of his spatulas in the process. ouch.

conditions are very similar to what's described in the recent Hakuba Now! reports (weak sun crust from bluebird Jan 1, with all that new snow and wind slabs on top of it). very windy + lots of new snow, not the best of conditions.

lots of crazy stuff going on lately.. riding mate got caught in the avie on-course at Nakazato Jan 3. was able to swim on top and was buried to his waist. according to another friend, looks like there was an avie at Kandatsu on the 45-degree slope, so they closed off the upper part of the resort for a day or two. so far, kagura has been lucky to avoid any skier-involved avies that I've heard of.

more avalanches in-bounds at some other Yuzawa area resorts, this time at Naeba and Gala. Also looks like a part of Highway 17 was affected by a slide: http://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20060103-00000515-yom-soci 新潟・苗場スキー場で雪崩、スキー客ら７人が重$ 605;傷 　３日午後５時２５分ごろ、新潟県湯沢町三国の 300;苗場スキー場」の第１高速リフト降り場付近で雪 崩（幅約５メートル、長さ約２５メートル、深さ 004;７０センチ）が発生し、近くにいたスキー客男女 ９人と監視小屋にいた男性従業員３人の計１２人 364;巻きこまれた。 　南魚沼署などによると、男性従業員（５７）が& 634;の重みで外れた監視小屋の戸にぶつかり、肋骨（ ろっこつ）骨折などの重傷。客ら６人も雪に足を 377;くわれるなどして軽傷を負った。 　同スキー場によると、この日は朝から吹雪で、 309;雪は約２６０センチだった。同スキー場に１０年 近く勤める男性従業員（３８）は「この冬は雪の% 327;が特に多

more info here: http://mytown.asahi.com/niigata/news.php?k_id=16000000512290004

Just saw on NHK news that there was an avalanche at Ludens Yuzawa today (Jan 3 2006). 4 staff were involved while posting out-of-bound ropes, but it looks like nobody was seriously hurt.

thanks for the info SnowConnection. this morning while at Kagura a riding mate saw a natural slide go off in-bounds, on the East face between the Kagura #3 Romance Lift and Giant Course, about 30-40cm deep.

http://www8.plala.or.jp/Gallery41-2nd/PhotoDiary/Eki/JRTsuchitaru01.htm http://watchizu.gsi.go.jp/watchizu.aspx?id=55382655&slidex=0&slidey=400

so far, kandatsu and nakazato. looking to also check out hakkai-san.

for anyone interested there was a pretty good-sized slide at Tsuchitaru/Yuzawa today (Dec 28 2005). luckily nobody got hit: http://www.asahi.com/national/update/1228/TKY200512280171.html 大雪崩、県道を５００メートルふさぐ　新潟・湯 810; 2005年12月28日11時28分 　２８日午前９時１０分ごろ、新潟県湯沢町土樽A 288;つちたる）の上越線土樽駅北側の斜面で大規模な 雪崩があったと、県南魚沼地域振興局から県警南' 770;沼署に通報があった。 　調べでは、雪崩は、駅北側にある荒沢山（１３A 296;３メートル）の中腹付近から起き、魚野川を越え て県道を約５００メートルにわたってふさいでい 427;という。付近に民家はないものの、雪崩に巻き込 まれた車などがないかを調べている。上越線は、& 634;の影響で、この日午前８時から運行を休止してい た。 　新潟地方気象台によると、湯沢町の積雪は２８ 085;午前１１時現在、２６２センチ。また、雪崩で高 圧線が切れ、周辺の１７戸が停電している。 　土樽駅は、上越線で

yep back in Yuzawa again, so not on the net as much as before. kagura has been shut down for the past 3 days, so we've been exploring different places here. with this much snow you can find good powder runs at any resort.

yes, it does seems like the forums have slowed down all of a sudden. guess the regular posters are out busy on the snow. sunrise you will be surprised if you ever make it out to Yuzawa with its huge snowfall, the most I've ever seen.

fattwins are you talking about surface hoar, depth hoar, or graupel? Next time I'm up there I'll check again or ask around. I don't recall seeing any facets when we were there last week. In nov we dug around and took some temp measurements on north-east slopes to check for early-season depth hoar. At the time snowpack was 60cm, looked good, no facets or crust layers yet. The crack above is on the lee-side, with the wind blowing from the north-east. it's starting to get convex-shaped - you can see how much it builds up by the end of the season from this spring avie-pic a friend took a

for anyone interested, here's a follow-up. pics taken Dec 17 around 1:30, sunny weather conditions, just atop the starting run of Nakaone. snowpack there was filled with 1-2 meter cracks.

Quote: Originally posted by Fattwins: Nice pics montoya I bet if you dug a pit up there you would find a 1 to 3 cm wind layer with ball like snow on it. more like 5cm. nasty crust on top. pic was taken Dec 16 on a south face. the dump on 18th/19th is on top of that.

yeah couldn't resist that! check out the crack-pic on Nakaone, some places it was running a couple meters deep. wonder what the new dump of snow is going to do to that.

ok dude here you go. all south-facing slopes.

Problem with Kagura is a lack of buses. You should probably check more, but I think this is what you'll find early morning: Shuttle to Kagura (starting this Sat Dec 10) http://www.princehotels.co.jp/ski/kagura/access.html Yuzawa Onsen Dori --- Mitsumata 7:30 --> 8:00 8:30 --> 9:00 300 yen Regular Bus Yuzawa Bus Terminal --- Mitsumata 6:05 --> 6:25 8:20 --> 8:40 470 yen If you arrive at Yuzawa really early and can round up some people to share a cab, that might be your fastest route. Not sure how much the fare is though. Either way, the Mitsum

Haven't been posting much, mainly cuz we're on the snow lately. Just wanted to say I'm really surprised at the heavy snowfall this early in Dec. Definitely worth a trip up here.

not much going on there, still need another storm or two. only pics I have are of the mrs. and I practicing with the beacons and checking out the snowpack - which looks pretty solid btw (no depth hoar, rain crusts, etc).

many thanks for this soubriquet!

just for the record http://www.snownews.jp/modules/news/article.php?storyid=399 http://www.asahi.com/national/update/1123/TKY200511230219.html http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/national/news/20051123i313.htm http://www2.knb.ne.jp/news/20051123_5299.htm http://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20051123-00000313-yom-soci topo map of the area: http://watchizu.gsi.go.jp/watchizu.aspx?latitude=36.56971944&longitude=137.6038972 search for "浄土山" for the other location and photos, eg http://images.search.yahoo.co.jp/bin/que...ei=UTF-8&fr=top video http://www2.k