8 foreigners, 1 Japanese guide safely rescued on Hokkaido mountain

Wednesday 18th March, 09:36 AM JST

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Mz at 12:54 PM JST - 18th March

Thank goodness for that! So much bad news around, great to see a good result!
BurakuminDes at 12:54 PM JST - 18th March

Back country skiing rules. I bet this was just a little over-reaction from the authorities, they don't seem to approve of going off the piste for some reason.
boarder at 01:14 PM JST - 18th March

WHo cares if they were Foreign NAtionals or Japanese, The question I would like to know is What company is this guide from? Was he guiding them on a Backcountry ski tour? If so he didn't do a very good job.... This story like many other Japantoday stories is poorly written.
timorborder at 01:43 PM JST - 18th March

Back country skiing = cross country? Just out of interest it would be interesting to know the skill levels of these people. Did they (and the guide) engage their brains before heading out on this little sojourn? Furthermore, because the people involved were non-Japanese, the local fuzz probably pulled out all stops. The have in the past got away with buggering up search and rescue efforts for one or 2 foreign nationals, but this many could not be handled in the same way. Imagine if the NY Times was running a story tomorrow morning saying "XX Die in Hokkaido." Such stories don't do much for tourist promotion.
jessssicaaa at 01:49 PM JST - 18th March

haha well that sounds like some of them were a bit scared to go down the slopes and the guide stayed with them lols ;P probably wrong, but yeh..

I'd love to try skiiing! looks so fun ;D
employeeof at 02:04 PM JST - 18th March

jessssicaa- you are probably right. the article said they were in a valley 1km from the lift.. which is up and over the backside of the main mountain.. there is a safety lodge in there. I imagine they were some softies that didnt want to hike back up, to get out.

should also note that to get to the ski area there you take a ropeway up out of Sounkyo Gorge, to the mountains above. without the ropeway.. skiing down it is possible, but it is very, very steep... its a canyon.
dennis0bauer at 04:08 PM JST - 18th March

Part time guide or what?
Nessie at 04:20 PM JST - 18th March

I imagine they were some softies that didnt want to hike back up, to get out.

You ever hike in superdeep snow in ski boots?
employeeof at 05:08 PM JST - 18th March

You ever hike in superdeep snow in ski boots?

yeah-- i have. it sucks-- hiking in snowshoes isnt the easiest thing either. going back country without snowshoes is realllly dumb. if they made it 1km away from the lift, and they had a guide then im sure they had decent equipment.

anyway- what ive heard today from the grapevine is that some of them got separated form the group and spent the night in a treewell... in which case my "softies" was unwarranted. it just boils down to their experience i suppose.
GW at 07:34 PM JST - 18th March

kjcar11

forget about trying to make sense of numbers, the news provided by kyodo is often of very low quality, imprecise, inaccurate & poor writing.

For most articles it just adds to the fun of JT but for something like this its boderline useless
ca1ic0cat at 08:43 PM JST - 18th March

Why does the news always have to state that it was foreigners involved?

I don't know but the world over if there is something that happens if there were that nation's people involved they are always treated separately. Like "plane crashes in Amazon, 5 Americans feared dead" or something like that. This isn't uniquely Japanese.

At least all of them are safe.
shanabelle at 10:55 PM JST - 18th March

Let's just say....9 people were found safely. Yeah!
Hotbox08 at 12:23 AM JST - 19th March

Thank God these people were rescued and are now safe. I'm sure that the information about some of them being foreign nationals was for the purpose of notifying their respective embassies. After all, I'm sure they all have families who may be worried about them. Or, maybe not.
sharky1 at 03:10 AM JST - 19th March

Awesome rescue! Good job to the rescue teams. It does prompt a question though...How many Japanese does it take to get 8 foreigners lost in the woods?
saborichan at 12:32 PM JST - 24th March

Or one anything, if the customers won't listen?