A group of foreigners caught in an avalanche in the backcountry of Otari Village, Nagano Prefecture, was scheduled to receive part of their travel expenses in return for the prefecture's tourism promotion organization to take pictures of the ski resorts and other places. I understand.
The avalanche occurred in the backcountry, not on the ski slopes, and the group said, "We were not aware of the details of the itinerary."
On the 29th, a group of foreigners skiing in the backcountry of Mt. Shirouma Norikura in Otari Village, Nagano Prefecture, was caught in an avalanche and two men died.
As a result of the police confirming the identity, one of them is American Kyle Smain (31), and major American media reports that he is a skier who has won international competitions.
The other is a 30-year-old Austrian.
The two were separate groups, of which the Nagano Prefectural Tourism Organization provided support of $750 per person in exchange for taking and providing photos of ski resorts in the prefecture to the group in which Sumain was believed to have joined. I learned from an interview with the organization that they had made an arrangement to do so.
The organization knew that the group would move from Niigata Prefecture to Nagano Prefecture on January 25 and that they would shoot at three ski resorts in the prefecture, but the details of the itinerary and backcountry skiing and I didn't realize it until I took the picture.
Hideaki Kichimi, manager of the prefectural tourism organization, said, "The agreement was to receive photos, and we were not aware of the details. It's a shame that the accident happened. We want to draw attention to backcountry skiing." was