3 die in accident in snowy central Japan mountain

March 25, 2018

Nagano- A group of seven men and women fell while climbing snowy Mount Amida in the central Japan prefecture of Nagano on Sunday morning.

All seven were rescued by helicopter, but two men and one woman were later confirmed dead, Nagano prefectural police sources said.

The dead climbers were architect Tsuneo Nakazawa, 63, of Itami, Hyogo Prefecture, corporate employee Yasuo Kameishi, 47, of Kobe, also Hyogo, and temporary worker Kikuko Yamashita, 39, of Kyoto.

Of the other four, a 47-year-old male corporate employee of Suita, Osaka Prefecture, sustained a bone fracture, and three male and female climbers between 40 and 56 were slightly injured.

The accident happened around 8:30 a.m. (11:30 p.m. Saturday GMT) in the 2,805-meter mountain, part of the Yatsugatake range.

The seven climbers, roped together, slipped down the mountain by around 300 meters from a height of some 2,500 to 2,600 meters. The three dead climbers were temporarily buried in the snow.

Of the seven people, in their 30s to 60s, five were men and two were women. The seven were members of a club of climbers in western Japan.

In the mountain, two students who were members of Gakushuin University's mountaineering club died while climbing in February 2015. In March 2016, a woman was killed in an avalanche. Jiji Press