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nice that everyone is going to go searching for this guy. But like Mamabear said probably too late, Its been nearly a week, this should have been organised much sooner.

good luck.

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There were other searches starting from the very next morning after he was reported missing and many volunteers and police have been involved. This is most certainly not the first organised search and I don't want people thinking that it's only now being taken seriously. It's just we've had no luck so far so we'll try and get everyone together for another go.

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One of the consequences of developing hypothermia is sleepyness and confusion and it has claimed thousands of people from this world.

I am afraid to say but it appears our poor friend has been as traditional folklore in Japana would say, been led astray by the "Yuki Onna". I hope they find him soon for some closure.

 

 

 

 

 

*Yuki-onna (雪女?, snow woman) is a spirit or yÅkai found in Japanese folklore.

Yuki-onna appears as a tall, beautiful woman with long hair on snowy nights. Her skin is inhumanly pale or even transparent, causing her to blend into the snowy landscape She sometimes wears a white kimono, but other legends describe her as nude, with only her face and hair standing out against the snow. Despite her inhuman beauty, her eyes can strike terror into mortals. She floats across the snow, leaving no footprints (in fact, some tales say she has no feet, a notable feature for many Japanese ghosts), and she can transform into a cloud of mist or snow if she is threatened.

The Yuki-onna, being associated with winter and snowstorms, is said in some legends to be the spirit of an individual who has perished in the snow. She is at the same time beautiful and serene, yet ruthless in her killing of unsuspecting mortals. Until the 18th century, she was almost uniformly portrayed as evil. Today, however, stories often color her as more human, emphasizing her ghost-like nature and ephemeral beauty.

In many stories, Yuki-onna reveals herself to travelers who find themselves trapped in snowstorms and uses her icy breath to leave them as frost-coated corpses. Other legends say that she leads them astray so they simply die of exposure

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I'm sorry I am not there to help, and this sounds like backseat driving but...

1) search above eyelevel ie: trees, rooftop

2) could be hugging a tree, pole.. this is going to be the hard one to see

3) could have crawled into a space

and all those places has been covered by snow.

I do some tracking and wouldn't expect to see any tracks now, but try and see any features that doesn't fit in. Why is there a lump of snow.. might need to take your Avi gear

 

really sad how this has turned out..

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Friend just sent me this

 

Quote:
A Brisbane man missing at a snow town in Japan helped develop a satellite tracking device for skiers which could have led searchers straight to him.

 

Former colleagues say it is unlikely Scott McKay was wearing one of the Flaik transmitters, which use GPS technology that allows ski instructors to monitor up to 45,000 skiers in real time.

 

Mr McKay was last seen leaving a bar in the northern Japanese ski town of Niseko early on Friday morning.

 

When he failed to return to his accomodation a 10-minute walk away, friends alerted authorities, sparking a search which has failed to find any trace of him.

 

Mr McKay, 27, was the one-time vice president of Snow Sports Interactive, the Queensland company which developed the Flaik device.

 

The IT specialist also helped to road-test it at ski resorts overseas.

 

The GPS tags are not available in Japan and it is unlikely he had been wearing one at the time, his former boss told brisbanetimes.com.au yesterday.

 

"Scott managed the roll-out of the tags and the networks, back in 2006-2007," Flaik Inc CEO Steve Kenny said.

 

"He had the network know-how and the snow experience to make things work."

 

Mr Kenny said Mr McKay was an experienced skier, who had travelled to some of the world's best snowfields and made an annual ski pilgrimage.

 

"He loved the snow," Mr Kenny said.

 

"He loved skiing and he loved life."

 

Mr McKay earned a civil engineering degree from the University of Queensland and began his own IT start-up company, Wolfbyte, in 2003.

 

He joined Snow Sports Interactive in late 2005 to work on the Flaik project, testing it at ski resorts in North America, before returning to Brisbane in March 2007.

 

The concept was developed at the Queensland University of Technology's I-Lab centre for new business development.

 

"You couldn't have asked for a better employee," Mr Kenny said.

 

"He beat me into the office most days and would still be out there when I went home.

 

"When I spoke to him last, in November, he had big plans for Wolfbyte and the future."

 

Mr McKay's parents have flown to Japan, where a search of the area continues. He also has a sister living in Australia.

 

While little snow had fallen on the night of his disappearance there had been big falls and strong winds on the two subsequent nights, raising doubts about his chance of survival.

 

"At the moment, we're hoping for the best," Mr Kenny said.

 

"I think Scott would have thought it would have all ended a bit early."

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Makes it hard to believe someone with so much experience could go missing.

 

I can only half imagine how difficult this must be for his family and friends - my thoughts are with them.

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Originally Posted By: Mamabear
Seems strange that people would fall asleep like you say Gimp...Even if I am nauseaus and wobbly on my feet a quick slap from the cold and I am all good...



It happens all the time in cold weather, alcohol and cold don't mix well. Every Xmas/New Year the Police forces in Scotland put out the message to beware drinking too much and walking home, especially as at this time people are not exactly dressed for the cold. People get disorientated and wander off, they get tired and their mental faculties can't work, they lie down to sleep and don't wake up. sadly its not that uncommon. Nieseko is a lot colder than Scotland with a hell more snow, things aren't looking good, I hope I'm wrong
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After this long it's not looking good. God I feel terrible for this guy's family and friends. Like everyone else has said, Hirafu/Niseko isn't a huge place. I don't understand how you could go missing within such a small area. I hate to say it, but what about the river? Who knows what things an intoxicated person may be thinking on the walk home. I'd thought about it for a second but dismissed the thought that foul play could have played a part in this tragedy.

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Originally Posted By: Mamabear


I wonder about the creek behind Wild Bills


exactly what I was thinking MB. We always stay at the place on the left just as you cross over that slippery creek.
A mate even fell in once which was a rather funny occasion.

I really hope you guys find out some news soon about your mate.
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Hi, I had friends that were in Niseko who told me that your friend was missing. I live in Tokyo. I scoured the papers, but nothing in the local english papers. Perhaps you could contact The Asahi Shimbun and the Japan Times - they are the most read papers and it may jog some expats memories. I really feel for you guys. My sincere best wishes

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Wow.

This is a bloke who knows his way about a mountain, and went missing on the way home from the pub in a small sleepy village!

Foul play has to be considered however unlikely.

 

We wish you guys a lot of luck GN, Nisoko and the others who are able to go and search again. If I was in town Id be right there alongside you all.

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There is a search in Niseko today - meet at Seicomart at 9:30, bring snow gear, poles, probes etc....the more people the better so if you can help out, please do!

 

>

 

THE mystery deepens as to the whereabouts of missing Australia skier Scott McKay, who has not been located despite extensive searches since leaving a Japanese ski resort bar five days ago.

 

Authorities and Mr McKay's family today appealed to locals and tourists at Niseko ski resort, on the northern island of Hokkaido, to join another search tomorrow.

 

A large group is expected to meet in front of the Seicomart supermarket, in the heart of Niseko's main village Hirafu, to find Mr McKay, 27, an IT business owner from Brisbane. He was last seen leaving popular night time hotspot Wild Bill's by himself last Friday at 1.30am.

 

"We will perform another big search tomorrow," Niseko-Hirafu safety liason officer, Derek Begley said. "Please bring snow gear, probes, poles and any dogs with a good sense of smell. We need as many people as we can - this one's going to cover everywhere we've been, just to retrace steps and look everywhere. If anyone can give us a couple of hours of their time, that would be great. The more eyes the better."

 

Mr McKay's father is still currently in Niseko, said Officer Begley.

 

Mr McKay's friends, who were staying with him in Niseko during the time of his disappearance, have flown back to Australia today, Officer Begley said.

 

Authorities call Mr McKay's case 'a mystery'

 

Officer Begley said the Mr McKay would have 'had to make an effort to get this lost'. "He's just disappeared," he said. "The weird thing is nobody has seen him outside the bar - there is just nothing to go on. All we've got is what he and his friends drank, who they saw in the bars, and then from there, there's nothing. This is weird because he left the bar at a time when there would have been heaps of people around - it's not like he left at four or five in the morning."

 

Officer Begley said what has confused authorities is the weather around the time of Mr McKay's disappearance was calm and clear, which should have made it easy to search. "On Friday, after he went missing, I went out with his buddies and we searched the whole river and you could see everything," he said. "There was no new snow, you would have seen all tracks in the area. On that night, you would have seen if anybody went anywhere. That day, it was all clear, but now we've got all this snow that has fallen since that is hiding everything. When Scott went missing, it was all hard-packed snow and there wasn't any mounds or snow drifts or anything."

 

The search continues

 

Helicopters, army, divers, volunteers and an increased police presence yesterday scoured the ski resort and its surrounding area, but failed to locate Mr McKay. Even off-duty rescue and fire officers have been called in, Officer Begley said. "Police, volunteers, Hokkaido prefecture search and rescue teams and helicopters are all searching," he said. "We also have skin divers checking the nearby rivers. We've done five or six searches already, and today we've done a bunch more again," he said. "Today it's been search and rescue once again doing their patrols."

 

Officer Begley said authorities and volunteers would continue to search for Mr McKay. "We can do this big search tomorrow, and then two more big ones the next day," he said.

 

Rescue efforts have also included the most unorthodox methods, said Officer Begley. "It's not like a mountain rescue, where you have to go through all these big, wild areas - it's all in town," he said. "The only thing it could be is he is somewhere really weird like in a car, or under a building, in an abandoned house, or he's just wandered out into the middle of nowhere, or been taken by someone. When you're drunk you tend to stumble downhill, not walk up a mountain through metres of snow," Officer Begley added. "He wouldn't have got far, or any more than 10m if he went straight bush."

 

Searches for Mr McKay were hampered by snow and strong winds earlier this week, which made it difficult for helicopters to be flown to Niseko until yesterday. The use of search and rescue dogs was also restricted, due to there only being three trained dogs in all of Hokkaido, said Officer Begley. "Two of those are drug dogs, and the other one is a mountain rescue dog, which would be ineffective because there are too many distractions in the Niseko region for it to smell."

 

Missing man developed device that could have saved his life

 

It has been reported that Mr McKay helped develop a satellite tracking device for skiers. However, former colleagues say it is unlikely Mr McKay was wearing one of the transmitters on the night he disappeared. The device reportedly uses GPS technology that allows ski instructors to monitor skiers in real time.

 

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Well there was a big turnout for the search this morning and we split into groups of 5 or 6 and each group had an area to search. The search area included areas that would not have been on the expected route from the bar to the pension as the obvious routes had already been searched extensively. Unfortuntely still no sign of Scott. Scott's father gave an emotional speech just before we went off and I doubt there was a dry eye in the crowd. Mine and I'm sure everyone else's thoughts are with the family and although there is now no real hope that Scott is still alive it's important to try and find him to bring some closure for the family.

 

I shoud add that the searches are by no means over and many groups are still out there.

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There has got to be SOME strange story here!

 

Great work to all those who turned out to search, and thanks to GN for keeping the SJ crew in the loop. Our thoughts and prayers are also with the family!

 

Here's hoping the family get thier answers sooner rather than later. X

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This is truly a bizarre case and it must be extraordinarily hard for his friends and family to cope with.

 

 

Quote:
"The only thing it could be is he is somewhere really weird like in a car, or under a building, in an abandoned house, or he's just wandered out into the middle of nowhere, or been taken by someone

 

taken by someone?? what like the Stephen King story 'Misery'? I guess it is plausible to some extent, but in Niseko?

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I think it's best we don't speculate too much. There's no evidence of foul play but I'm sure it's not been ruled out by authorities. Unfortuntely no one seems to have seen Scott after he left the bar so we have very little to go on.

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