29 April 08

Copied from a friend's Japanese alpine news blog:

Yuki Arai, a mountain skier was killed by an accident at Goryu (2,814m) in Nagano Kita Alps on April 23, 2008. He was found dead under a cliff apx. 300m down from the top of Goryu-dake by a police helicopter at 8:00 am of April 28. He went into the mountain from April 23 alone, and his friend asked the police to find him on April 27 evening. He was supposed to be killed when skiing. He is a mountain guide, the chief manager of Tokyo University Ski Alpine Club. He is known among Japanese mountain skiers as the first successor who skied down on the north face of KashimaYari-gatake. He was born in 1975, and lived in Gunma.

My comment:

Goryu Dake is right behind my house and is a beautiful rocky peak with a number of couloirs and a large snow field on the northern side.  The access is moderately easy; 6.5km from the top lift at Goryu Ski Resort and a height gain of 1100m.  The bulk of the route is along a narrow undulating ridge (a very nice area to travel, with good bivy sites on approach the the peak proper). The final section of the route requires some mountaineering to the summit. After skiing the full eastern face (pictured) you would have a very long and tiring exit from a deep valley, usually back up to the Goryu ridge line in the Kotomi Yama area. I had packed my overnight kit and gone to bed on the 22nd with the intention of heading for Goryu Dake the next day, also solo. But when I woke up I decided against the trip, for reasons I do not recall.  Probably the increasingly hot temperatures in the valley and a reality check on my .

A few weeks ago just after I was done riding the NE couloir on Shakushi I stopped or a lunch break and waved at two skiers ascending daiseke.  A few days later, a Japanese backcountry blog owner wrote that he saw a lone snowboarder and a dog just after they came down the Shakushi couloir.  Turns out that the skier I waved at and the blog owner was Arai-san. His blog has now been taken off-line.

I do not know Mr Yuki Arai, but if he skied the first (or any) descent on Kashimayari ga Take (2842m) north face then he certainly had some skill, determination and courage.  Kashimayari is the next major peak next to Goryu Dake and is without question the hardest extreme skiing route in Hakuba.

Kashimayari