Japanese hiker killed in Mount Norikura avalanche
- Five people were caught in the avalanche that occurred around 10am on the Nagano side of the mountain, with two injured and two unharmed
- The avalanche in the Northern Japan Alps was about 200 metres wide and slid 300 metres,
Five people were caught in the avalanche that occurred around 10am on the Nagano side of the mountain but the two others were uninjured, according to the police.
Two men from Shiga Prefecture, 41 and 49, who sustained light injuries, had been with the man believed dead when they were hit by the snowslide.
“I only realised that an avalanche was heading our way when someone ahead of me cried out but I was quickly caught up in it,” the 49-year-old man told the police. “I only stopped when a felled tree caught me.”
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The avalanche in the Northern Japan Alps was about 200 metres wide and slid 300 metres, according to the local police, and was possibly a surface avalanche in which a layer of freshly fallen snow slides over a dense layer of packed snow underneath it.
