SnowConnection

Update news: http://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20080104-00000013-mai-soci One tent had four people, and another had three. One each side (i.e: 2p x 2 tents = 4p) are victims. Center three (incld. the lady) are alive. The lady said she had air space on her breast. SC

> why people are on the mountain, and > Yarigatake in particular, in this storm. I heard a member of Gifu rescue team said so. Me too. I suppose they would plan to see New Year Sunrise on Jan 1st on the top of Yari-gatake. Then they must realize it was impossible to do it by bad weather, so far they believed to pitch their tents at "seemed to be safety" place for a temporary evacuation from the harsh night. An update news reports more... http://dailynews.yahoo.co.jp/fc/domestic/snowfall/?1199257431 (Abstract) The lady rescued told, in the tent, she

The following post is very suggestive. Source: http://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20080101-00000057-mai-soci (Abstract) 34 years ago, 1973 Nov 20, a 22 peple group was attacked by an avy at around the same time and on around the same place, several hundreds meters apart from Yaridaira hut. Five were killed. They were sleeping, and their tents were covered by snow of several ten centimeters to one meter. It meant 540 Kg to 1,080 Kg weight placing on a tent, a report guessed. Some who slept with face-up had high risk to be suffocated by tent cloth. Some who slept

An avalanche hit a tent site near to Yaridaira hut, Takayama Gifu prefecture on 2007 Jan 1st 0:15am. Seven, one female and six males were buried when sleeping in the tents. Apx. 20 people near-by digged out them, and carried them in the hut which has no custodian, for evacuation only. Three were rescued with safe, though four males ( 31 and 51 from Tokusima, 60 from Kanagawa and 45 from Tokyo) remain unconscious. Gifu police started rescue work from the morning. There were more than 3 meters snow fall, and 23 groups 74 pepople staying at the tent site, a report t

A snowboarder was killed by snow suffocation on 2007 Dec 31 11:00am. He, 33 from Chiba, fell and buried his head and uppder body into deep snow outside the course, when he was skiing on upper Panorama Gelande of Hakuba Happo ski resort. Skiers passing by found him and hospitialized him, but he had been dead by suffocation. Source: http://www.asahi.com/national/update/1231/TKY200712310116.html Map: http://map.yahoo.co.jp/pl?lat=36%2F41%2F...pointer=on&sc=5

A snowboarder (male, 34, Tokyo) has suffered serious condition after losing his way in Neseko WeissHorn (outbound) ski area. His friend asked rescue on Dec 25 4:35pm, two hours after the missing. The resort had ten and some snowers enjoying snowing under good weather condition. Rescue started from Dec 26 7:00am by 80 people, and found the snowboarder fall down in cold stream (Ioh river) at 9:10am, 500m west of Hutte Weiss Horn. He was hospitalized soon by heli, but is in coma. Source: http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/national/news/20071226i303.htm?from=navr Info.: Niseko

This happened not by an avalanche, but in a resort slope on Dec 10 Monday 11:50am. http://www.nikkansports.com/general/f-gn-tp0-20071210-293920.html http://www.hokkaido-np.co.jp/news/society/65126.html A skier found a snowboarder burying his face in snow of a truck of Furano ski resort, Hokkaido. The truck is in Kita-no-Mine area, supposed not to be groomed. The snowboarder was dead by suffocation after being hospitalized. He is a company employee(26) living in Itabashi-ku, Tokyo, and came to the resort on Dec 9 with his some friends. SC

On a quality paper web site, the last news about Moiwa was on Sep 7, 2007. http://www.nikkei.co.jp/news/retto/20070906c3c0600m06.html It told Zephyr bought Moiwa ski resort and Hotel Niseko Grand Stage from Watermark Resort Niseko, a subsidary of HIS Co late May 2007. The resort and the hotel had closed. Zephyr plans to reconstruct the hotel to a condo to be sold, and to reopen Moiwa ski resort on 2007/2008 season. Also, they would plan to built 99 rooms of condos by Oct 2008, to built 15 lodges by Oct 2009. However, no news has been about Moiwa ski resort open, and no news in Zephyr web s

A team of JSSI (Japan Society of Snow and Ice) investigted the scene on Nov 25. The avy size was 460m long with 70m wide corrected. The 70-80cm layer slipped down on the 40 degree 300m slope. The debris was 160m long with 69m width and 3m deep. The team did not reach the starting point due to bad weather, so was not able to clarify a couse or a trigger. Referred by http://www.hokkaido-np.co.jp/news/society/62457.html Sandan-yam BC Ski Tour club released a flash report. http://www.sandan.net/avalanche/2008/071123/071123.html SC

On Nov 13 Tuesday around 11:30am, an avalanche attacked two skiers climbing Kami-Horokamettoku-san (1,920m), Tokachi mountain range. One was injured, but no one was killed. Yahoo!Map: http://map.yahoo.co.jp/pl?lat=43%2F24%2F...pointer=on&sc=4 The avy started at 1,820m point, went down, and cought one guy. His friend was not hit. She called on police who rescued them by a chopper. Sandan-yama BC Ski Tour club reported a Nov 17 investigation of them. http://www.sandan.net/avalanche/2008/071113/071113.html It told the hard-slab type avy was 170m wide with 400m long runnin

An avy occured at Ansei Kako of Kami-HoroKamettoku-yama (1,920m), Tokachi mountain range on Nov 23 Friday around 12:05 noon. Yahoo!Map: http://map.yahoo.co.jp/pl?lat=43%2F24%2F...pointer=on&sc=4 The 10 meters wide and 50 meters long avy attacked 11 members of Japan Alpine Club and one solo climber. Three men(60, 63 & 68) and one woman(56) were killed by suffocation. One was found in two metere snow depth. One weared his beacon, but others did not. This area is popular in BC snowers, and they climbed up to the top in a line. Hokkaido had much snow fall on Nov 22, and was getting

In Hokkaido, all rentacars faciliate studless tires in winter season unlike ones in north America. That's proud of Japan. Most cars have 4WD and car navigation system. I don't know if car navi has English language support. Three words of 4WD, Studless, English Car-Navi would be keywords for GAIJIN visitors when renting a car in winter. The problem is that rentacar cost is too expensive. We may find some good deal in some travel packages for domestic users. I do not know if foreign visitors can buy any better discount or any special offering. Most domestic visitors outside Hokkaido arriving a

Thanks montaya. On Feb 12th 14:00, I attempted to head to this slope, but skied down on the left (north) side of #5 romance lift for taking more safe way. The slope (on the photo) might be stable at that time, but might have a risk. Your photo is valuable.

Thanks, montaya. A good pic. I'd like to identify the point. Is it around the center mark of; http://map.yahoo.co.jp/pl?lat=36%2F51%2F...pointer=on&sc=4

Add'l Info by Yomiuri Online NP, - The avy happened apx 11:00 am on Feb 14, on the north face of Maetake peak (1,252m) . - The route name is Douzou (bronze statue) course. - The avy size was 200-300m long with 25m wide. - The victims are two men (44 & 39) living in Tokyo. - The customers stay at Sukayu Onsen Ryokan. - Seven members of an Ausie mt rescue team happened to be passing by and gave them hands. Add'l Info by NHK TV news, - The avy size was 100m long with 5-10m wide. - The new snow fall was estimated to be 40cm. The snow pile is 3 meters depth. -

Yes, ger is right. Rent-a-car may be usefull in Hakuba or Niseko. However, roads in Shiga Kogen area have many steep slopes and some narrow at high location. They are frozen in the winter night. It causes some dangerous to drive cars. Also, most snow villages are poor (western people say "ugly") for night life. I suppose Sun Valley would have no independent bars/restraunts (ones with hotles/lodges only). Don't have the similar images of Aspen-Colorado or Jackson Hole-Wyoming for nightlife of Shiga Kogen-Japan.

I realized English version of offical Shiga Kogen web site had got better for this season. http://www.shigakogen.gr.jp/english/ They say nothing about road condition in the access section, though the road btwn Yudanaka & Sun Valley is somtimes frozen. Another idea is to have a rent-a-car for Nagano JR station (East exit), then to have a Nagaden bus for Sun Valley. The bus fare is 1,500 yen one-way. The bus time table is in Japanese. http://www.nagadenbus.co.jp/robus/2007fuyu/kyukowin.htm

Ota city is still in the Kanto plane where you can not see ski resorts. Driving to Maebashi to Shibukawa, then you may see snow on roads after passing Numata. I would suggest to go to Hotaka Bokujo ski resort if you don't want to see difficulty on snow driving. No mountain pass is from Numato to the resort. It has also some BC ski areas outbound (less in Jan/Feb???).

Really? I've never been there. I checked a Yahoo! Map agin. http://map.yahoo.co.jp/pl?lat=36%2F47%2F...pointer=on&sc=4 No. Three resorts are connected with short distance roads. Sorry I was wrong. mina2 is right.

I mean; Three resorts of Snowboard WH, Kitashiga K Komaruyama and Ryuoo SP are connected with their lift sytems, and NOT connected with major Shiga Kogen lift system.

The word "Shiga" sometimes confuses people (even Japanese) in terms of the resort location names. See this map agin: http://www.snowjapan.com/e/maps/snow-jap...akogen-map.html Followings are each SEPARATE area which people call "Shiga". 1. Shiga Kogen: The VERY BIG ski resorts from Sun Valley to Ichinose to Okushiga Kogen. All resorts are connected by lifts/gondoras/ropeway 2. Kunamanoyu & Yokoteyama: This resort is a smaller, but famous in Onsen and high quality powder. You can access from Hasuike bus station (near to "G"iant in the map) by bus. It has no lift connection wit

It is a very hard driving to go to Sun Valley from Yudanaka sta by car. Even me, I do not want to drive my car (a 4D with snow tires) in the night and the early morning in winter season. If I myself stay at a Sun Valley hotel, I go there by train and bus, or by my car (at Yudanaka parking) and by bus. The bus schedule from Yudanaka sta to Sun Valley (to Ichinose) is enough. Also, taxi service is available. You can check the driving route from Yudanaka sta to Sun Valley (the above posting) by Yahoo! Maps with tracing route 292 toward right-down. a FROZEN road ! Yahoo! Map: Yudanaka sta.

Sun Valley (the old name is Housaka) is the lowest place (the entrance) in Shiga Kogen resorts. It is a nice place and no problem to enjoy the entire of the big resort because Sun Valley lifts connect the upper lifts/gondoras/ropeway. When I was younger, I used to stay at a hotel of Sun Valley. I used to ride the shuttle bus for Ichinose ski resort just after the breakfast, and ski down to Sun Valley for spending a whole day. You can go up to Ichinose by using lifts/gondora/ropeway. The Ichinose lifts connects to Yakebitai & Oku-shiga. You can also access to Kumanoyu (Yokoteyama ski resort

Japan KANKEN announced the 2006 annual HENKAN prise. HEN means strange & funny here (usually means changing). KAN means conversion implying Japanese Hirakana-Kanji conversion. The winner's one is; "Okurete Suimasen Kaitou'an'desu." The winner was just sending an e-mail report to his boss late night. He wanted to say "Sorry for my late reporting. This is my answer & proposal." on the e-mail title. He typed "Okurete(=for my late) Suimasen(=Sorry) Kaitou(=answer)'an(=propsal)'desu(=this is)" with Hiragana. Then, his computer converted "Okurete Suimasen" as usual correctly, b

I suppose they have many rooms during 12th to 19th January. Shiga Kogen ski resort is one of the biggest resorts in Japan, but where is remote to rail stations and bigger towns/cities. I suppose you might feel access problem if you can not speak/read some Japanese. If you have quesiton, free to send me a PM.