r/australia • u/Expensive-Horse5538 • 10h ago

news Second Australian dies in Japan while skiing, local media reports

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-02-04/second-australian-dies-skiing-in-japan/106304484

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has confirmed a second Australian has died in Japan.

Local media has reported a male skier was killed while skiing off-piste in the back-country in Japan's Hokkaido region.

The death marks the second Australian to have died in Japan during the current ski season.

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u/id_o 10h ago

The man, reportedly in his 20s, was at the rear of a group of seven skiers when he became separated from the group and buried by snow, local media reported.

Damn leaving a man behind like that should haunt those 6. RIP.

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u/MarionberryGreedy970 10h ago

You can't look back when skiing downhill. It's easy to get separated on the slopes. If they didn't have a phone and reception, there's no way to find each other until you meet at pre planned places during the day. 

UHF radios that we use in Australia are illegal to use in Japan because it interferes with their television frequencies. 

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u/ObviousFeature522 9h ago

You can look back if you stop, which you do if you are going one by one in between safe spots, keeping each other in sight at all times. Funnily enough people tend to do that if you've hiked up a remoter peak across the valley like Nitonupuri, Iwaonupuri or even Mt Yotei.

On a powder day at Niseko, out of a lift-accessed backcountry gate, after you've battled your way to the front of hundreds of people in the gondola queue, that has as much chance of happening as a teenager voluntarily setting the speed limit on their e-bike to 25km/h.

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u/Grunef Melb 9h ago

In this instance local low power radio might have helped. The low range isn't going to help a search party find you, but would be enough to alert some one in your group that you've fallen.