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I'm only getting the info in dribs and drabs, but it seems the girl dug up her boyfriend quite quickly. He was dug up unconscious, and she imediately called some kind of emergency/rescue service, but they "couldn't come Sunday" so they spent the night on the mountain. When the rescue team arrived on Monday, he was already dead. Very sad.

 

Also, there was an avalanche at Eniwadake on the same day. One man was buried but survived with terrible injuries.

 

I'm getting this from a Japanese friend who is translating it and passing it on, so I don't know why the rescue team couldn't get to the couple on Ashiribetsu dake. It does sound strange though. If the avo was at 12.30, and she dug him up quickly and called for help. It seems like there would be a fair bit of time for the team to respond. It'd be interesting to find out what went on there. Hard to criticize fairly without all the info though.

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Looks like this is the same Furano avie, but the details appear a bit different, they say the rescue team came that same evening:

http://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20050320-00000512-yom-soci

 

20日午後0時35分ごろ、北海道富良野市の芦 029;岳(1726メートル)の屏風岩(1481メー トル)付近で、スノーボードに来ていた札幌市南 306;真駒内曙町、会社員佐藤篤博さん(31)と友人 の同所、同中西祥子さん(33)の2人が雪崩に 059;き込まれた。中西さんは自力で脱出、携帯電話で 、札幌市内の知人を経由して救助を求めた。

 

 富良野署によると、中西さんは「雪に埋まった 304;藤さんを助け出したが、意識不明で呼びかけに応 じない」と話しており、道警は同日夕、山岳救助& 538;員ら7人を派遣、救助に向かっている。

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 Quote:
Originally posted by powda tele:
He was dug up unconscious, and she imediately called some kind of emergency/rescue service, but they "couldn't come Sunday" so they spent the night on the mountain. When the rescue team arrived on Monday, he was already dead.
There is one (potentially factual and accurate) reason why 'commercial' BC touring will not take off anytime soon in that area of Japan. I postulated this in one of my usual long-winded posts recently.
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Its sad but very true about bc sking in Japan. When you are out there you are on your own. That guy if unconscious needed to be airlifted out. That is the job of a fast response team of which Japan does have. How they use them is always another thing.

 

Whenever sking OB its best to make sure that you can get yourself out of danger. that means one at a time if its a small group or the buddy system in large groups. one buddy being in charge of another buddy.

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Interesting.

 

Montoya, your Japanese is clearly far superior to mine. since many of us don't have jobs where we can sit around studying Japanese (I'm not suggesting you do, but some teachers here do), could you please give a rough translation for the ignorant such as myself? Also, can you find anything about the Eniwadake avo. It's not far at all from Sapporo. Thanks for the info.

 

A rescue team of 57 for someone who was already dug up? I don't want to believe it, but I suspect it might be true. If it's true, it certaily doesn't sound like an efficient response, large but perhaps not fast. We do have to keep in mind that the media often get the details all wrong as they rush to get the story out. Difficult to make judgements until we really know.

 

Fattwins - good point about skiing with buddy system. I don't ski in large groups, but if I did, I think it's a good idea.

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If we put the tragedy aside for a sec, it's a good (for want of a far better word) reminder to us all to keep our heads up and be careful out there. That's two avie accidents with serious consequences in Hokkaido in the same day.

 

I was BC on Yotei with two others the same day. The pit we dug showed a good stability for where we were. Frightening to think of the dramas unfolding not so far away at the same time!

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i'm finally taking a class next week in Kagura. i can read all i want but there's nothing like hands on instruction.

 

so what is the deal with mountain rescue in japan? are there areas that are known to be covered by fast response teams? does insurance come into play in the response time (as disturbing a thought as that may be)?

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Latest news is saying that the rescue team tried to get there the same day, but they couldn't. The couple had to wait one night. The woman got frostbite but she was fine. The guy died. I guess, whatever happened with the rescue team, the result is the same either way. It's still a grim reminder to us all.

 

Sock Monkey - I agree, I'd read a reasonable amount before my basic course, but a practical course is much better. I think a course is better than a beacon (though I'd recommend both, and practice).

 

Don't know anything about rescue teams etc in Japan. I do suspect it varies greatly, depending on your prefecture. I have heard that in some prefectures it is free, while in others it'll cost you a fortune. Of course, if an accident happens, financial cost wouldn't cross my mind. Nothing would cost as much as a dead friend. A while ago there was a rant on the main forum about ambulance services in Japan. The quality and training of your ambulance service depends very much on your prefecture, so I suspect the same would be true of emergency wilderness response teams.

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Mountain Rescue teams are typically run by local police organizations, such as Tanigawa search and rescue is under Gunma Police, another one that frequently mentioned in the media is stationed at Tateyama, under Toyama Police. Through media, I have this feeling that they are more suited for organized search and rescue rather than quick in/out of an avvy victem or others. What comes to my mind is the rescue at Mai Hotaka early in the season, that they had to wait for the weather to clear to air lift a guy who dug a snow pit to survive.

Also, it is kinda interesting that many retired members of those teams had written books about the days in the life of an rescue team.

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Ok, here's a rough translation of the above and also the article here:

http://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20050321-00000003-mai-soci

 

Could not find any mention of the rescue party being late, but will continue looking. I think you guys in Hokkaido are getting better coverage of this than down here in Tokyo.

 

------------------

 

2 snowboarders in avalanche at Furano, Hokkaido leaves 1 unconscious

 

Reported on March 20th, 0:35 pm. 2 snowboarders near Furano were caught in an avalanche,

office worker Sato Hiroshi (31) and Akiko Nakanishi (33). Nakanishi was able to perform a self-rescue, then extricated Hiroshi, and requested assistance by calling a friend in Sapporo. According to

officials in Furano, Nakanishi stated "I dug out Sato from the snow, but he was unconscious".

Police dispatched a rescue party of 7 to the site at 6pm. A helicopter was also sent.

The women did not suffer any injuries.

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don't know when they got the call, but 6pm is pretty late and it would be too dark to attempt an airlift by the time they got there.

 

a friend of mine was in a mountaineering accident back in Canada and had to spend the night on the mountain because it was too late in the day. luckily he managed to stay conscious through the night and was picked up the next morning.

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I'll try and get a better description today. I'm getting info from a forum that includes a close friend of the deceased and at least one of the rescue party. I'm getting it second hand through a Japanese friend.

 

Apparently, the guy (and presumably the girl) were not risk-takers. He always carried avo gear and dug pits, etc. They dug a pit that day, and thought it was OK. He rode first. After not too much riding (just over 50m?) the slab slid, fracturing 50m above him. It appears to have slid on a layer of ice. One of the rescue team has posted that it was a classic slab avalanche.

 

We were out BC on the same day (Yotei) and noticed several (at least three) layers of ice in the first 1.5m. There has been a lot of warm weather up here recently, with some melting and refreezing going on. Our pit was quite well bonded. The rescue guy on the forum thinks the area where the accident happend was wind loaded (as slabs usually are).

 

From the translation above, it's difficult to say when the chopper was dispatched. Perhaps it was dispatched well before the party of 7, and they were only later dispatched when the chopper couldn't make the lift. Difficult to say the way it's written, and the press do often initially get the facts mixed up.

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Yep on the good to bad scale that story is way down the bad end.

There is always risk there even when you are trying to be careful. Thats life!

It is definately a reminder to stay alert out there.

By the way

Love the sign off line powda tele

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  • 2 weeks later...

He coulda saved himself some trouble digging that pit then if it was a 'classic' slab avalanche. I'm looking forward to reading db's thing about why Europeans don't generally bother with that anymore. I think it might be very interesting (strictly armchair interest that, so get off my case already about being in your little bit of the forum).

 

Pull yer finger out db mate!

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Something I read on biglines talked about the not diggin pits and doing more risk management. It went something like this.

 

Terrain

snow over time

wind over time

temps over time

amount of people sking the terrain over time

it was funky and only and overview, but according to their facts it was as safe or safer to use this system. Also stated was the fact that some pits had been done but not many like 10% or less of the time.

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