Chinese Tourist Missing After Solo Mt. Fuji Climb in Closed Season; Helicopter Search Finds No Trace
Police in Japan's Yamanashi Prefecture said a Chinese male tourist in his 20s set out alone from the fifth station of Mt. Fuji's Yoshida trail on the morning of Nov. 8 and lost contact with his companion at around 11:30 a.m. that day. Police, firefighters and a Yamanashi prefectural disaster-prevention helicopter searched the mountain on the morning of Nov. 10 but found no trace of him; snow around the trails was already more than 30 centimeters deep.
According to police, the man had arrived in Japan the previous week with a friend. Mt. Fuji was in its closed season, and the friend gave up the climb, while the man went up alone, exchanging videos and messages with the friend by phone until contact stopped at about 11:30 a.m. on Nov. 8. Police said he carried no tent and none of the equipment needed for snow mountaineering. The friend, with help from acquaintances, reported him missing to police in the early hours of Nov. 9, and police concluded he may have met with an accident.
On the morning of Nov. 10, police officers, firefighters and the prefectural helicopter searched around the trails but did not find him. Police said snow deeper than 30 centimeters and the risk of avalanches meant the search would resume once the weather improved.
China's Jimu News reported that the family said the man is 25, serves with a rescue team back home, and had not told his family about the Japan trip, and that the Chinese Embassy in Japan was helping the family obtain an expedited visa to travel to Japan. That account comes from the family and has not been confirmed by Japanese police. Mt. Fuji's climbing season normally runs only from July to early September, and Japanese local governments have repeatedly warned visitors not to climb during the closed season, when weather changes quickly and snow lies deep.
(Source: Yamanashi Prefectural Police, Japan)
Source: Yamanashi Prefectural Police, Japan
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：富士山与河口湖。照片：Subramaniam K V，CC BY 3.0，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: Mt. Fuji over Lake Kawaguchi. Photo by Subramaniam K V, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
