TOKYO (AP) Two foreign men hit by an avalanche while backcountry skiing were found without vital signs in a famous ski resort in central Japan, police said Monday. Nagano Prefectural police said the two men were among five foreign skiers who were caught in an avalanche Sunday afternoon on the eastern slope of Mount Hakuba Norikura where the group was backcountry skiing.
TOKYO Rescuers in Japan were searching for two foreign men on Monday (Jan 30) after they were caught in an avalanche while backcountry skiing in central Japan's Nagano Prefecture a day earlier, local police said. Three other foreign skiers hit by the snow slide, which occurred at around 2.30 pm (0530 GMT) on the eastern slope of Mount Hakuba.
Japanese officials were waiting to confirm the victims' IDs in the off-piste disaster, but a U.S. magazine and a photographer said Lake Tahoe's Kyle Smaine was one.
One of two foreign men swept up in an avalanche in Japan while back-country skiing in the central prefecture of Nagano and found without vital signs on Monday was U.S. professional skier Kyle Smaine, an outdoor magazine said. The men were among five foreigners engulfed in Sunday's avalanche, which took place at about 2:30 p.m.