Leading Japanese Mountaineer Killed In Avalanche

[Mulboyne]

[floatr][/floatr]MountEverest.net: 8000er summiteer Japanese Yoshinobu Kato among three victims of fatal avalanche in Tibet
..."Unfortunately, more sad news from Asia," Rodrigo Granzotto Peron just wrote in an email. "This is proving to be one of the darkest years in High Asia. The latest bad news is from Kula Kangri (7.538m), where an avalanche wiped out three Japanese climbers. Among them the famous Yoshinobu Kato (32). With 8, 8000ers, Everest twice (both sides) and Manaslu twice, he had one of the best records in Japanese mountaineering. Another sad tragedy." Kula Kangri in Tibet is the highest peak in the Luozha county. Xinhua reports that the Tibetan mountaineering association confirmed that the three Japanese mountaineers were found dead after an avalanche struck at 6.50 pm local time yesterday. The climbers were headed from camp 1 at 5900 meters when the slide came. Fellow team mates reportedly found the bodies some 300 meters away from the camp, according to the source.

[Behan]

There's a famous mountain climber who appears on TV sometimes. He doesn't look like the man in the picture but the article said there were three victims. The man who appears on TV isn't one of them, is he?

[Greji]

There's a famous mountain climber who appears on TV sometimes. He doesn't look like the man in the picture but the article said there were three victims. The man who appears on TV isn't one of them, is he?

Don't wanna hijack the thread, but what is it with the hang-up on "famous mountaineers" in Japan? Apparently anybody who has walked up a slope can claim that title (not that they don't truly have some good climbers), and they do tag some real dildoes with that name. We have one that lives up in the mountains near us and last month he went outside of his place to sitdown and play with a bear cub he found. You guessed it, mama bear comes up and says "get your dick skinners off my cub" and bites the slug right on the snoot. Next day it is in the papers that a "world known mountain climber" was in a bear attack. Nobody in the neighborhood knew shit about him let alone enough to consider him world renown. On top of that, anyone who has been out in the sticks knows that you don't mess with yon beast's offspring......
Again, sorry for the interruption and it was indeed sad about the death of the three...

[Catoneinutica]

Didn't see another thread on the topic, so I guess this as good a place as any: John Krakauer, in his 1997 book Into Thin Air about an Everest expedition in 1996 that ended up in multiple deaths, writes that a couple of survivors remembered members of a Japanese expedition walking right past dying hikers, not offering oxygen, not helping in any way. A real breach of the hikers' code, as well as simple ethics. That they were Japanese is not surprising.

From the wikipedia entry for "1996 Everest Disaster":

[INDENT]The next day, two Japanese climbers, Hiroshi Hanada and Eisuke Shigekawa, of the Fukuoka Mountaineering Club, aided by three Sherpas, making the summit attempt, found one of the climbers shortly above First Step. The climber, (whom Krakauer believes to be Paljor) was still moaning and frostbitten from exposure over the night. The Japanese climbers left him and set out for the summit. After they climbed the second step, they ran into the other two climbers, probably Samanla and Morup. Krakauer notes "No words were passed, No water, food or oxygen exchanged hands. The Japanese moved on ...".

The apparent indifference of the Japanese climbers was inexplicable, as the Indian expedition leader told later, "The Japanese had initially pledged to help the search for the missing Indians. But hours later, they pressed on with their attempt to reach the summit, despite bad weather."[17] The Japanese team pressed on and summitted at 11:45 am (Nepal Time). By the time the Japanese climbers descended, one of the two Indians was already dead and the other near death. They could not find any trace of the third climber further down.

Much discussion ensued on why the Japanese did not help the Indian climbers. While the consensus suggests a rescue mission at such a high altitude was out of scope, it is not understood why the Japanese did not offer any succor to the dying Indians.
[/INDENT]

Krakauer's book:

http://www.amazon.com/Into-Thin-Air-Personal-Disaster/dp/0613663616/ref=pd_bbs_sr_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1223001395&sr=8-3

[Greji]

Didn't see another thread on the topic

I remember that incident. It hit big in the papers here initially with the success of their climb and finding the missing party; however, when the heavy questions started being asked about why there was no attempt to assist, the J-news dropped it quicker than colder turd and it was not essentially addressed afterwards.

[Behan]

Japanese people are shy so they were incapable of helping.

But seriously, that is horrible.

[Samurai_Jerk]

But seriously, that is horrible.

You can't judge the Japanese by Western or Subcontinental standards. Being an indifferent douche bag is deeply ingrained in the Yamato culture.

[Kagetsu]

No sticking up for the Japanese crew who were climbing Everest then... But it's hardly limitted to Japanese people. It's quite common for people to skip right over the dead or dying people on the way up, especially when so close to the summit. Recently there was one guy who had made it to the summit, but was injured and couldn't make it down again. He lost his fingers (they call him stubby apparently) and some toes I believe, but was found on the edge of a sheer by climbers going up, apparently looking like he was having a rest. He was rescued, but he also talked about how early on, there were people who just walked past him, without helping, even though he was clearly alive. I believe that was in the 2006 climbing season.

[Mulboyne]

MountEverest.net: Japanese Kula Kangri tragedy update, "they were all work mates"

Last week, Xinhua reported that an avalanche on Kula Kangri (7.538m) in Tibet wiped out three Japanese climbers. The victims included cameraman Susumu Nakamura, 62, Yoshinobu Kato, 32 and Satoshi Arimura, 27, the source cited CTMA. Yoshinobu Kato (32) had climbed 8, 8000ers, Everest twice (both sides) and Manaslu twice. Susumu Nakamura skied to the North Pole from Cape Hekla BC in 1978 (with resupplies and dogs) and from Hercules Inlet to the South Pole in 1994. With Everest in 1988, the Japanese explorer accomplished one of the earliest expeditions to the three poles.

Yusuke Hirai, ExWeb's Japanese contributor from the Ski & Mountain ProShop Kandahar in Tokyo, told ExWeb Sunday that Yoshinobu Kato and Satoshi Arimura both were Hirotaka Takeuchi's (10, 8000ers) work mates at ICI Ishii Sports, the huge sports chain in Japan where also female Japanese K2 summiteer Yuka Komatsu is employed. Yoshinobu Kato's parents are already in Tibet, and other friends and relatives left Japan Sunday for China.

The climbers were headed from camp 1 at 5900 meters when the avalanche struck. Fellow team mates reportedly found the bodies some 300 meters away from the camp. Young Arimura's remains have now been brought to Base Camp, Yoshinobu's remains are expected in BC today, Monday. The Kula Kangri Expedition homepage has been closed.