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Two days ago I witnessed a rider triggered avalanche and ended up digging the victim out. It was a traumatic experience, and certainly a wake up call. What follows is the report I submitted to the Avalanche Control Team here in Hakuba, and then some photos of the incident.

"On the morning of January 25th of decided to head up the west bearing ridge off the top of Happoone ski area for a backcountry tour, alone. I was certainly aware that a severe melt-freeze event had occurred two days prior, along with significant new snow accumulation at elevation one day prior (30 cm at above 2,000 meters?). On that day, January 24th, I had observed the new snow releasing easily as soft slabs from the hardened surface in crossloaded deposits on the north side of the ridge ascending west from the top of the Goryu. Thus, I was entirely aware of the potential instabilities that existed on the day in question. I set out without a definite plan of descent, only with a mind to take a look at the conditions and find a safe, comfortable route down. I was curious to check the conditions on north west aspects, as I had surmised that due to the lack of sun exposure on west slopes, these aspects at high elevation may not have expereinced the extreme melt/freeze that other aspects had over the previous two days. I would, however, never receive the opportunity to do so.

I began my ascent of the ridge at approximately 9:00, following three groups of Japanese skiers and snowboarders on the trail. Although there were light winds, and occasional patches of sun, the weather remained unstable, with heavy cloud cover and difficult visibility. Arriving at the first major flat point one reaches from ascending from the top of the Grat Quad at Happoone, I considered heading down, due to the weather and the fact that a number of other skiers and snowboarders were using a low angle slope to enter a north facing gully, which seemed to me as the safest way down at the time, aside from descending back down the ridge to Happoone. However, observing two of the Japanese groups continuing to ascend the ridge I decided to follow, still without any definite plan.

One of the two groups pulled off the trail and descended north into an area I was unfamiliar with. The other group pushed on to the climax of a point in the ridge known as Mumei Zawa. I followed them to that point. Upon arrival I surveyed the surrounding area, poking around a bit towards the north westerly aspect of that point on the ridge. With the weather remaining unstable and the new snow being much deeper than I had suspected, I elected to retreat. I decided to head back to the point where I had last seen the Japanese group and take a break for food and water, trying to come up with a plan on what I might do. The Japanese group, consisting of four, three snowboarders and a skier, was beginning to drop into the prominent east by north east aspect (maybe even some south exposure?) of Mumei Zama. On my ascent of the ridge I had noticed the two convex rolling features at its entrance looking heavily windloaded, and, with its mostly east exposure, thought to myself that it would not be the safest route of descent on this day. However, I also thought that it might be feasible to descend this pitch following the other four, or another possible option would be to descend the ridge finding something safer back towards Happoone to the east. I began to prepare my gear as the group of four began their descent into main east pitch of Mumei Zawa.

The group began their descent going one at a time, using radios to send the next rider down. While not a Japanese speaker, I was able to decipher that the snow was good, hearing shouts of excitement over the radios. Approximately five minutes after the fourth rider had left my sight I heard the unmistakable rumbling sound of an avalanche, then followed by loud distressed sounding shouts in Japanese. I froze. Something had happened, but should I proceed down to investigate? Skeptical, I mounted my snowboard and began to proceed into the north east slopes of Mumei Zawa. Upon approaching the second convex roll I saw massive amounts of avalanche debris in the lower gullies, propagating out approximately 100 meters in each direction. I then noticed shooting cracks propagating shortly beneath me on the fall line. Some 8-10 meters below the shooting cracks was the crown of the avalanche, which I ascertained to be approximately 30 cm in depth.

I could still hear shouting below me so I exited the slide path to its right and began a descent along a treed rib. Soon I could see one person, the skier moving slowly down the slide path, shouting what I assume was the victim`s name. I approached him and asked "is someone buried"?. He replied "one" and then said "search mode". I quickly pulled out my beacon and switched to search mode, I then proceeded down the slide path in a zig-zag pattern. I soon overtook a second person moving slowly searching the slide path. We attempted to communicate, to no avail. I kept moving and had covered considerable ground, at approximately 300 vertical meters from the crown I reached the third party member. He went down to the right and I went down to the left. I received my first signal. I stopped and immediately I saw my 'search partner' running quickly down slope to the right, obviously he had a strong reading. I headed in that direction as he probed. He must have struck the victim immediately as he quickly tossed the probe and began digging with his hands, rapidly pushing snow away. When I arrived the victim's mouth and nose were showing through the surface. He was breathing. I quickly assembled my shovel and began digging around the victim with all my strength. The other man also assembled his shovel and we both were able to unbury most of the victim within 3-5 minutes. Soon thereafter the other 2 party members arrived. I remembered that we all needed to switch back to transmit mode on our avalanche beacons, as there was definitely a concern of more avalanches occurring above. I tried to convey this to the others and we all switched to transmit mode. I believe that the victim came to rest at over 300 vertical meters from the crown. A distance which speaks to the immensity of this particular slide.

He was breathing well, and kept saying the same word in Japanese. He was hurt, with potential broken limbs, ribs, internal bleeding, and a large laceration above the right eye. His head was facing downhill and had been buried approximately 30 cm. His torso had been deeper, approximately 1-1.5 meters deep. His legs were above his head, but due to the uphill slope had been buried approximately .5-1 meters deep. We cleared all the snow away from his head, neck and body. We covered his body with all our extra clothing. I shoveled away the snow surrounding his snowboard and one of the party members took it off his feet. I unclipped his pack straps and then the shoulder straps, leaving the pack underneath the body for insulation. I obtained my first aid kit and taped taped a gauze pad on the victims eye wound. He was going into shock. He friends did their best to comfort him and try to keep him warm. His breathing was heavy and intense. I was very worried.

Meanwhile one of the party members had been radioing for a rescue. I was told that a helicopter would be coming in 20 minutes. I began to clear away all of our gear from the burial sight; packs, snowboards, skis, probes, shovels; moving these items to the side of the gully out of the slide path, and to keep the area clear for the heli-vac. The helicopter rescue team arrived in approximately 30 minutes. Two Nagano Police rescuers were line dropped to the scene. The victim was hauled to the hovering helicopter by line and flown to a hospital in Matsumoto. News is that he will live, although I am not sure what injuries he suffered.

Myself and the other three party members then descended the rest of the way down to the river bottom and skied out of the canyon, arriving at the road at approximately 15:00."











Its GAME ON out there kidz....

very well written account snowsavage. also excellent job on the rescue assist. glad to hear even though you were solo you still had your avy gear.

Good work man, thanks for the write up.

Wow, pretty scary. Nice write up and good work getting him out. Glad he is OK.

WOW..........
thanks for that

Hakkuba Avalanche Information....

For those serious Backcountry two plankers and riders out there who speak english a great source of weather/avy data can be found at www.steepdeepjapan.com. He is a buddy of mine that I rode with last year in the Hakkuba area and knows the local area very well.

Great post and great rescue.

Wishing I was closer to the mountains.

snowsavage, you had a lot of good reflexes (switching back to send mode after finding him, etc...) which is not easy in the heat of the moment.
You and the other guys did a tremendous job finding the guy, stabalizing him, trying to keep him warm (seems you put hot water in plastic bags then into his clothes?) and contacting rescue.

Any update on the victim?

quick questions:
how steep was the pitch (i think 35 degrees from japanese avy report but not sure)?
Was rescue contacted via phone or radio?
If via radio, do you know whether it was the resort patrol frequency or directly mountain rescue?

I rode same day 200km away from haks. Same Jan 23rd rain crust but very stable.
Local weather patterns can make such a huge difference.

bigdirtyd, I am not 100% sure, but may have met you.
Day we tried to do the tengu dake flutes but had to turn around due to instability in the pack and ended riding brown chinese cement?
Anyway, agree with the website recommendation.

by the way snowsavage, you seem experienced, but you reaaaaally need to find at least one regular riding partner, especially given the lines you tackle.
Bad luck is all it takes to get tagged.
stay safe.

Wow, that is one hell of an experience. Dude looks like he got beat up pretty bad. Glad to hear he is going to survive. Looking at the pictures I wouldn't have guessed that the angles were much in the slide zone. About how steep is that starts zone? Is it magic bullet, more, or less in angle?

Intense!

Great work, saved the mans life

for those of you wondering about the slope angle in the start zone, I think it was around 35 degrees. I got back out there yesterday and took a few photos. You will see the remnants of the crown just below the second convex roll, the one with the trees over its top. Its sorta hard to see because of increased wind deposits and some new snow since the accident. Basically that whole bowl went. Notice how the slope angle increases a bunch after the bowl. My theory is that the victim was hit by the slide triggered above him somewhere at the bottom of the bowl. I suspect this because he was carried so darn far down the slide path, which again I think was around 300 vertical meters.

He also may have been the one who triggered it. I cant speak Japanese so could never find out from the party exactly what happened. But I am interested to know if the victim triggered the slide or one of his buddies did. I am also interested in his condition, but have no way of contacting anyone else involved.

This photo shows the gully the slide ran into. You can see the remnants of the slide debris, also covered up by some new snowfall. I believe that the victim was buried around the area where you cannot see the gully anymore in this photo, but am not sure exactly. What I do know is that he certainly traveled a long way before the slide stopped moving.


SerreChe; No, we did not fill anything with hot water, but that is a good idea, if one has a thermos. We gave him a few sips of hot water from a thermos, but he could not really take it down.

you are not the first to comment on me riding solo. years ago I would have never rode BC solo. Yet overtime I have become quite comfortable with it. I have ridden a lot of big lines and climbed some big mountains on my own. I would always prefer to have partners, but if having partners means being held back from doing what I want to do than I choose to ride solo. In all honesty most people I meet cant hack it in a number of categories. One would be being reliable, being on time in the morning and being ready to charge hard. I have been fucked around by so many people I meet because of those issues, be it drinking, or just being all talk. Two would be having the physical drive to push hard, all day long, and then some (you down for 16 hour days in the field?). Again, some people are just too slow, or lack the will to go the extra mile for my liking. Three would be having the mental game to handle it, and being on the same page about what we are going to try and ski.

With what I am into, finding folks that are on my wavelength is a rarity (although many exist and are out there). The ones I have found and skied with are as real as it gets, they know who they are, and some are probably reading this post right now. When I am with those people, I am usually the one failing in all the categories above, cause whether folks on the internet wanna beleive it, there are some real deal people out there who can handle themselves in the mountains. If you are one of em, then lets go, I am ready to roll, otherwise I'll get it handled on my own.

Maybe this aint the best forum for Ski Mountaineering eh? Cause thats what I try and use my split for, thats what I am into, and I honestly I dont see a soul on here promoting things at that level. Thats my game and I suppose the meadow skippers on here see things differently. I know the consequences, and if I get 'tagged' its my business. If you can relate, or know somebody who can relate around here, then we should get connected, otherwise I am best off doing what I do on my own terms.

This is not meant to be hostile, just real. And, its a rant, cause I keep hearing the same thing from other people on this forum and elsewhere. I do respect what they say, and appreciate them looking out, but sometimes a guy has gotta do what he has to do.