22 July 2008

This article has two parts. First, it outlines the reported avalanche incidents across all of Japan for the 2007/08 season. Second, it focuses on the evolution of the Hakuba snowpack and details those incidents that occurred in Hakuba.

I am using avalanche incident data from the Japan Avalanche Network as the official source of data in Japan. I am a contributing member and attended their end of year meeting where the indecent summary was reviewed and discussed. Other incidents may have occurred yet remained un-reported.

The data and discussion on Hakuba’s snowpack and avalanche activity is based on my own weather station data, along with my own field observations and observations by guides in Hakuba recorded on the JAN public database.

PART 1: 2007/08 Avalanche Incidents in Japan

There were 15 reported avalanche incident in Japan from between 13 November 2007 and 12 April 2008. I do not have data available to compare to the previous season.

Of the 15 reported incidents:

41 people were caught in an avalanche
9 people sustained injury
15 people died.