rider69 18 Posted January 27, 2012 Share Posted January 27, 2012 I had 40 fresh to clear in my lot today. Cleared 30 to 40 the day before as well and this is just the start of a feb that is supposed to be epic as says the JMA. Link to post Share on other sites
Tubby Beaver 209 Posted January 27, 2012 Share Posted January 27, 2012 bring it on I say!! I'm really pumped for tomorrow at Maiko.......can't wait. I'll take the camera but I don't think I'll have much use for it!! Link to post Share on other sites
Dominique 0 Posted January 27, 2012 Share Posted January 27, 2012 Hey All, Having riden Maiko and Kandatsu in Yuzawa the last 2 days, while not being serious mountains, it was amazing how many bodies \ heads popped up while riding the black ungroomed runs. We were having fun straight lining these runs and were amazed how many crashed people there were to dodge at times and yes, us at times as well. We have a few hours to ride at Gala before we leave tomorrow and are sure there will be more heads to dodge in the south area. Tubby, Maiko was veeerrrry nice on Thursday and look forward to getting back there again on our next visit. Look out for heads in the snow Dom and Dave Link to post Share on other sites
Tubby Beaver 209 Posted January 27, 2012 Share Posted January 27, 2012 Nice one.....It'll be good to see your pics as well. Link to post Share on other sites
stemik 14 Posted January 27, 2012 Share Posted January 27, 2012 The lifts at Happo were closed this afternoon to search for missing persons. Not too sure of all the details but will ask and post details Link to post Share on other sites
Tubby Beaver 209 Posted January 27, 2012 Share Posted January 27, 2012 shit!! hope it turned out well Link to post Share on other sites
griller 9 Posted January 28, 2012 Share Posted January 28, 2012 Just on the national news about a 51 year old dude missing today at Hakuba Goryu. Link to post Share on other sites
Thundercat 60 Posted January 30, 2012 Share Posted January 30, 2012 Seems like the dangers were very real. Here's an account of what happened at Goryu on the weekend. Seems like a combination of bad luck, bad conditions and (possibly) bad decisions. Sounds like a huge avalanche. From the Evergreen Outdoor Center: Avalanche Involvement, Hakuba, January 28th, 2012 2 male Japanese skiers, 41 and 51 years of age, both were involved in a very large avalanche in the Hakuba side country, one buried and found dead, one survivor left to search. On their third run off the South Faces outside of Hakuba Goryu ski resort boundaries the two men strayed skiers left of their intended run due to poor visibility. By the time they realised that they were off their intended course they turned back right and descended just into the top of the large south facing open bowl and at this point triggered the avalanche just after noon. The depth ranged from 1 to 2 metres in depth and the slide fractured the whole width of the bowl, reaching just over 500 metres maximum width. The avalanche, taking the 51 year old, ran down two separate drainages for a slope distance of 1500 metres, losing 620 metres of elevation. The debris washed 100 metres up the wall on the opposite side of the valley to finally rest against a dam in the valley bottom. Due to the very poor visibility the survivor was not 100% sure where his partner was when the avalanche released, and thus unsure as to where he was carried. He proceeded to travel down-slope into the main skiers left drainage with his beacon on search, but he did not receive any signal. Making it all the way to the main debris, he met 3 others that had just descended through the treed slope skiers right of the slide. They were already in search mode as they were aware that the avalanche was recent, very large, and that there may have been someone buried in the debris. They met up with the survivor, one went for assistance, and the other two helped with the search. They were in the narrow run-out at the base of multiple starting zones with other riders descending. With a high probability of other avalanches being triggered on to them, they decided it was too dangerous to continue searching and returned to the base of the ski field. The survivor continued to search until the authorities came and began an organised rescue effort. The victim was finally found dead, buried 5 metres deep, at approximately 1000 metres elevation in the skiers right hand drainage at 17:00 hours. On field investigation of the fracture site on January 29th by members of ACT and Evergreen Outdoor Center it was found that the avalanche fractured and propagated within the faceted melt form layer between a melt freeze crust and the recent storm snow. The thaw crust formed on the 18th and 19th of January and buried on the 22nd of January was most pronounced on solar-affected aspects and has been found on slopes facing from east to west, up to at least 2200 metres. The slope angle in the start zone was an average of 40 degrees and convex in shape around rocks, trees and bushes. The avalanche is calculated to have a mass in excess of 50,000 tonnes and classified as a destructive size 3.5 and a size 5 relative to the path capability. Snowpack Synopsis: Recent storm snow ranging in depth from 1 to over 2 metres is heavily loading the thaw crust and weak, sugary textured, faceted snow grains. Clearing and stronger winds the morning of the 29th have created a wind slab over low density snow that is likely to facet and become weaker. Forecasted heavy snowfall early this week will continue to add greater load to the existing faceted weak layer and bury and load the wind slab of January 29th. Travel Advisory: Backcountry travel on slopes greater than 35 degrees on all aspects is not recommended. Choose small terrain with low consequences and practice strict travel procedures. With deep slabs and facets associated with melt forms, test results are often unreliable. Absence of avalanches should not be assumed to be an indicator of stability. Avalanches will be easier to trigger from thin tensioned areas close to bushes, rocks and trees. The present weak layer may persist for weeks to come and further loading may increase the probability of large slab avalanches. If in doubt take the route of lowest risk. This may mean returning the way you came. ALPINE ZONE: HIGH HAZARD !! Stronger winds, colder temperatures and greater snow fall are all contributing to very unstable conditions in Alpine and Tree Line Zones. Watch out for avalanches from ALPINE ZONES travelling to the valley and into TREELINE and BELOW TREELINE ZONES. TREELINE ZONE: HIGH HAZARD !! BELOW TREELINE: CONSIDERABLE HAZARD ! Link to post Share on other sites
tokabochi 9 Posted January 30, 2012 Share Posted January 30, 2012 Yeah just read that on the Now pages. It just keeps on falling here. Pretty wild. Link to post Share on other sites
HelperElfMissy 42 Posted January 30, 2012 Share Posted January 30, 2012 May he rest in peace. I am thankful for the warnings given. We can ony hope they are given and there is no actual disaster. It does not mean there has been no risk. And then in cases like this the sad reality unfolds. It is sometimes said that those who ski/board know and accept those risks; and more particularly those that ski outside of marked trails and resort boundaries know and accept those risks. In the most part I think this is true, but there are always people new to the sport, or old to the sport without contact with forums like this one to broaden their education who do not really have a clear understanding of the implications of what they are doing. The more I learn the more respect I have for the mountain and the power she holds. My thanks to forum posters willing to take their time to discuss these important and sobering topics. My thanks also to those dedicated people who take the time to put together the avalanche advisories and reports of occurrences in a manner that allows readers to learn from them. My greatest thanks to the skiers on the ground who made efforts in searching for the victim. What a traumatic and sad end to your day out. It is the people like these involved in snow sports that make it a community. Just one of those guys makes up for 100 morons cutting in line at the lift queue. Link to post Share on other sites
Jynxx 4 Posted January 30, 2012 Share Posted January 30, 2012 Buried 5m deep No chance. I wonder how they found him. Most people carry probes 2m length, some up to 3m Good decision to abandon the search. Let´s be careful out there. Link to post Share on other sites
ippy 66 Posted January 30, 2012 Author Share Posted January 30, 2012 when i first went to buy my probe, there was a dude in the lodge i was staying who talked me out of a 3m probe. He bluntly stated that if its more than 2m, unless the dude has an avalung and is actually using it, its really just body retrieval. I tried to argue with him of course, but he knew a lot more about this than me. And he was also likely right... a fact i didnt realise until our guide made us dig into actual debris. Its all one digging in soft snow. Its exhausting but doable. In debris where its almost solid ice in places its cut and chop and really slooooow progress. Three meters of that and youd be very lucky to pull someone out alive even if your search skills are totally on point. RIP dude. Link to post Share on other sites
rider69 18 Posted January 30, 2012 Share Posted January 30, 2012 A 2 meter probe is a bit useless really. You will never plunge the probe to 2meters maybe 1.5 meters so it is much better to go longer. Hakuba and most of Nagano at the moment have problems in the snowpack at or around 1 meter deep. Happo has a missing Skier it was so deep from friday to Saturady so who knows where he is. Link to post Share on other sites
seemore 66 Posted January 30, 2012 Share Posted January 30, 2012 Wow that is alot of snow RIP Seemore Link to post Share on other sites
ippy 66 Posted January 30, 2012 Author Share Posted January 30, 2012 A 2 meter probe is a bit useless really. You will never plunge the probe to 2meters maybe 1.5 meters so it is much better to go longer. Hakuba and most of Nagano at the moment have problems in the snowpack at or around 1 meter deep. Happo has a missing Skier it was so deep from friday to Saturady so who knows where he is. I went with a 2.6 meter just because longer is still better Link to post Share on other sites
rider69 18 Posted January 30, 2012 Share Posted January 30, 2012 That is a not a bad choice I have a 3.2meter probe. Link to post Share on other sites
Chriselle 158 Posted January 30, 2012 Share Posted January 30, 2012 Rider69.....another missing skier? Link to post Share on other sites
rider69 18 Posted January 30, 2012 Share Posted January 30, 2012 From my knowledge yes. Skied out the 47 exit to a SAR team hunting for a skier missing off of Happofrom Saturday. Sunday the lifts were delayed to let SAR have a look around or so ive been told. The SAR team asked if we had seen a guy with a green jacket. We dug a pit found our results to be misleading and skied a safe line down to a save pillow line. The helicopter flew our us a few times. Link to post Share on other sites
HelperElfMissy 42 Posted January 30, 2012 Share Posted January 30, 2012 That is a concern. So important to ride in pairs or more off piste, and also let someone know where you are going and when you will be back so the alert can be raised. I know when there was a slide in Zermatt our last trip our accomodation manager was doing the rounds ticking all her guests off to make sure they were accounted for (spread out all over the village in multiple different chalets too!). She said the local phone a friend network was running hot also. However this slide took out an intermediate groomed piste and a waking trail as well, so anyone could have been involved. Link to post Share on other sites
seemore 66 Posted January 30, 2012 Share Posted January 30, 2012 Very sobering I guess a good reminder to be careful maybe I will just play off the side of the groomers Seemore Link to post Share on other sites
Tubby Beaver 209 Posted January 30, 2012 Share Posted January 30, 2012 thats horrible to hear of another.....and my scrapes at the weekend reaaly brought it home to me that even if you are even a little bit from the piste, getting out from where you are can be tough! Link to post Share on other sites
marku 0 Posted January 30, 2012 Share Posted January 30, 2012 Not it is not. It generally is not on the resorts. It is the extreme example of Cortina. And as millisent said, the vast maj. of people going to 'Hakuba' will see nowhere near like 150cm of new snow and will not be experiencing 'super dangerous conditions'. Hakuba 47 has reported a total of 75cm since last Friday. Goryu has reported a total of 50cm since last Friday. So let's not get too carried away now, shall we. Who's getting carried away? I will be at Cortina (if the lifts aren't still closed) and they have had 150cms (with a lot more to come). The original warning was for the Otari ski fields anyway, not Hakuba. Untwist your panties dude, no one was trying to misrepresent anything Hey Black Mountain, Im pretty sure I saw you riding the deep stuff at Cortina on Sunday holding a pole cam. If it was you Im looking forward to seeing your footage. Link to post Share on other sites
NoFakie 45 Posted January 30, 2012 Share Posted January 30, 2012 I'm sad to hear about someone losing their life in town, with another sounding likely as well. When there's so much snow all over Nagano and Niigata, maybe its better for powder seekers coming a long way to go to a ski hill that is less popular than Hakuba Goryu. It would offer them the chance to ride untracked for longer without leaving a resort. Link to post Share on other sites
Thundercat 60 Posted January 30, 2012 Share Posted January 30, 2012 Not it is not. It generally is not on the resorts. It is the extreme example of Cortina. And as millisent said, the vast maj. of people going to 'Hakuba' will see nowhere near like 150cm of new snow and will not be experiencing 'super dangerous conditions'. Hakuba 47 has reported a total of 75cm since last Friday. Goryu has reported a total of 50cm since last Friday. So let's not get too carried away now, shall we. Who's getting carried away? I will be at Cortina (if the lifts aren't still closed) and they have had 150cms (with a lot more to come). The original warning was for the Otari ski fields anyway, not Hakuba. Untwist your panties dude, no one was trying to misrepresent anything Hey Black Mountain, Im pretty sure I saw you riding the deep stuff at Cortina on Sunday holding a pole cam. If it was you Im looking forward to seeing your footage. LOL. Was that you guys yelling at me from the lifts? Yeah, I've got quite a bit of footage but not sure how much time I'll have this week to get it together. I'll be sure to post it on SJ when I have a chance. Link to post Share on other sites
Thundercat 60 Posted January 30, 2012 Share Posted January 30, 2012 I'm sad to hear about someone losing their life in town, with another sounding likely as well. When there's so much snow all over Nagano and Niigata, maybe its better for powder seekers coming a long way to go to a ski hill that is less popular than Hakuba Goryu. It would offer them the chance to ride untracked for longer without leaving a resort. This is some fantastic advice. There are lots of places to check out... doesn't have to be the most popular resorts. Link to post Share on other sites
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