BRITISH MAN KILLED IN AVALANCHE IN JAPAN
31st January 2020
Last modified on May 15th, 2021
Another man was killed in a separate incident at the weekend. They follow the death of a Frenchman last week.
The 34-year-old Briton was caught in an avalanche on northern island of Hokkaido.
He was skiing with two friends, another British man and a Japanese national, at the time.
Both were unhurt.
They were on the south face of Mt Pinneshiri near the town of Nakatombetsu.
He was dug out and taken to a local hospital where he was confirmed dead.
The man has been named as Barnaby Levy.
In a separate incident on the main island a 47-year old man died in an avalanche near Nagano in central Japan.
He was snowboarding with two friends on Mount Norikura.
Last week a Frenchman died as his group group of eight was skiing off piste in Hokkaido.
The group of six men and two women was skiing off-piste, when the avalanche struck mid-afternoon at the Tomamu resort.
The weather has been warmer than usual and that probably made the snow unstable, according to the authorities
The dead man has been named as 38-year-old Sylvain Lethier.
His friends tried to revive him at the scene, but they were unable & they left his body and returned to the base of the mountain as the weather closed in.
Earlier one had skied off immediately after the accident to alert the rescue services.
His body was recovered by the authorities on Friday.
The man was found inside a snow cave built by his friends on a steep slope about 500m from the peak of the mountain’s south side.
The group was skiing outside the area managed by the ski resort when struck by the avalanche.
It was 50m long and 4m wide.
All members of the group were from France and had arrived in Hokkaido last Saturday.
Investigations into all the accidents are underway.
