Australian man dies skiing in Japan days after Queensland snowboarder killed in ski lift accident | Japan
Days after the death of Queensland snowboarder Brooke Day, a 27-year-old Melbourne man died at a ski resort in Japan.
The man collapsed and suffered a heart attack while skiing with six other people in Niseko, Hokkaido, on Monday, according to a spokesman for a local ski resort who asked not to be identified.
The spokesman said the Australian athlete was working at a local hotel in Niseko and collapsed while skiing behind his group of seven people, when four other skiers saw him fall and began CPR.
“He was talented, kind, gentle and a wonderful man,” they said.
“There were no accidents, collisions or falls.”
The man was rescued by the fire department and pronounced dead at a hospital, local news outlet UHB reported; local police said they would investigate.
Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said it was providing consular assistance to the man’s family.
A spokesperson for Dfat said: “We offer our deepest condolences to the family at this difficult time.”
The Australian’s death came three days after Day, 22, died when his backpack got caught in the ski lift at the Tsugaike resort in Otari, near Nagano.
The facility’s elevator operator said it would fully cooperate with the investigations and “take concrete measures, such as strengthening our safety management system, to prevent a recurrence.”
Japan has faced record-breaking snowfalls in recent weeks, the disaster management agency reported; Nationwide, 30 people have died and more than 100 have been seriously injured in snow-related incidents since January 20.
Annupuri ski resort in Niseko, near where the man was reportedly found, recorded 290cm of snow near the mountain’s summit and 200cm at the foothills on Wednesday.
Daily Niseko avalanche bulletin He noted that snowfall on Monday was “extraordinarily good” and warned visitors to avoid off-piste skiing.
“The area outside the gates is not a ski resort,” the Feb. 2 bulletin read.
Snowfall delayed train services, forced highways to close and last week briefly closed the main airport of Hokkaido, Japan’s northernmost main island, stranding hundreds of passengers.
According to Reuters news
