TOKYO – Two men are presumed dead after their bodies were recovered following an avalanche in Japan, police said today, a day after an off-piste accident in the central region of Nagano.
Japanese authorities declined to identify the pair, but US ski magazine Mountain Gazette reported that one of the dead was American professional skier Kyle Smaine.
Two men who were travelling with Smaine posted Instagram updates saying he had been killed in the avalanche.
Search teams found two men “in cardio-respiratory arrest” today, said police official Tomohiro Kushibiki, using a term commonly employed in Japan before a death can be confirmed by a doctor.
The missing two had been outside the patrolled areas of a ski resort in Otari village along with several other skiers and snowboarders when the incident took place yesterday.
The others were able to return down the mountain, but two foreign nationals were still missing by last night.
Kushibiki said he could not confirm the identities of the two men found today, or their nationalities.
But Mountain Gazette said Smaine, 31, had been killed in an avalanche in Nagano today.
The outlet said he was with another professional skier, Adam U, and the publication’s senior photographer Grant Gunderson.
“Yesterday was my absolute worst nightmare scenario,” Gunderson wrote in an Instagram post published today.
He said an avalanche had been triggered by a skier, and Smaine “was thrown 50m by the air blast and buried and killed”.
Last week, a cold snap blanketed much of Japan in heavy snow, including Nagano, which draws many overseas tourists during ski season.
An avalanche warning and snow warning are currently in place for the area.
Fans were quick to leave tributes to Smaine on a video he posted on Instagram yesterday showing him skiing off-piste.
“This is what brings me back to Japan each winter. Unbelievable snow quality, non-stop storms, and really fun terrain that seems to get better (the) more exploring you do,” he wrote in a comment accompanying the video. – AFP, January 30, 2023
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