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Champion US freestyle skier dies in avalanche in Japan

A US freestyle skier has died in an avalanche in Japan, his family has said.

Kyle Smaine had gone to Japan because of the “unbelievable snow quality,” he had previously written on Instagram.

“This is what brings me back to Japan each winter,” he said.

Mr Smaine won gold in the halfpipe at the 2015 FIS Freestyle Ski and Snowboarding World Championships.

The skier was in Nagano Prefecture on Sunday in the middle of Honshu Island when he died, according to his father William Smaine, NBC News reported.

Kyle Smaine looks on from the podium after finishing in first place in the final round of the FIS Freeski World Cup 2018  Men's Ski Halfpipe during the Toyota U.S. Grand Prix on January 19, 2018 in Mammoth, California (Getty Images)
Kyle Smaine looks on from the podium after finishing in first place in the final round of the FIS Freeski World Cup 2018 Men's Ski Halfpipe during the Toyota U.S. Grand Prix on January 19, 2018 in Mammoth, California (Getty Images)

Nagano police said that as many as five men from the US and Austria were caught up in the avalanche that occurred on the eastern side of Mount Hakuba Norikura, Reuters reported.

Injured skiers, behind a blue sheet, get into an ambulance at a ski resort in the village of Otari, Nagano prefecture, Japan Sunday, Jan. 29, 2023 (AP)
Injured skiers, behind a blue sheet, get into an ambulance at a ski resort in the village of Otari, Nagano prefecture, Japan Sunday, Jan. 29, 2023 (AP)
Police officers prepare to head to the site of an avalanche, at a ski resort in the village of Otari, Nagano prefecture, Japan Sunday, Jan. 29, 2023 (AP)
Police officers prepare to head to the site of an avalanche, at a ski resort in the village of Otari, Nagano prefecture, Japan Sunday, Jan. 29, 2023 (AP)

The authorities said earlier that the five men had been skiing in two groups, with three of them being able to climb down the mountain on their own, while two of them, Mr Smaine and an unnamed man, were stuck on the 8,100 feet (2468 metres) high mountain.

Rescue workers ride a gondola at a ski resort as they take part in a search for missing skiers following an avalanche the previous day, in the village of Otari in Nagano Prefecture (via REUTERS)
Rescue workers ride a gondola at a ski resort as they take part in a search for missing skiers following an avalanche the previous day, in the village of Otari in Nagano Prefecture (via REUTERS)
Police officers try to transport victims found at an accident site following an avalanche the previous day, in the village of Otari in Nagano Prefecture, central Japan, January 30, 2023 (via REUTERS)
Police officers try to transport victims found at an accident site following an avalanche the previous day, in the village of Otari in Nagano Prefecture, central Japan, January 30, 2023 (via REUTERS)

Both of them were found without vital signs, Reuters noted.

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