Canadian snowboarder dead after plummeting into waterfall basin in Japan

A Canadian woman is dead after reportedly falling into a waterfall basin while snowboarding off course at a ski resort in western Japan on Sunday.

Police in Minamiuonuma City, Niigata Prefecture, said the 39-year-old was snowboarding at the Muikamachi Hakkaisan Ski Resort on the western side of 1,778-metre Mount Hakkai about mid-afternoon when she left the established trail and is believed to have fallen from an undisclosed height, according to TBS news in Japan.

Niigata News Net reported that another foreign national, also skiing off course, alerted resort staff who then contacted the fire department around 3:30 p.m. Firefighters, however, didn’t reach the woman for more than two hours, arriving at roughly 5:50 p.m., and weren’t able to complete the rescue until about 9:40 p.m.

As reported by FNN , the woman was unconscious when they arrived and rescue efforts proved challenging.

The woman was taken to a nearby hospital, where she was pronounced dead shortly thereafter.

Police said she died from a traumatic hemopneumothorax, which, according to the Cleveland Clinic , is a chest injury that occurs after a fall or crash in which both air and blood collect in the space around the lung, causing it to partially collapse and making it hard to breathe. It can also lead to cardiac arrest.

FNN and other outlets identified the victim as Ashley Kay Bernice, a government employee who was visiting Japan with a friend. They did not specify whether she was a federal or provincial public servant.

Japan’s National Police Agency are investigating the incident.

National Post has contacted police and Global Affairs Canada for more information.

Several others have reportedly found themselves in trouble after leaving the set trails at the same resort recently, though not fatally so. On Jan. 25, six people needed to be guided out after becoming stranded, and a solo skier found himself in the same predicament four days later, per FNN.

Police have advised people to stick to the marked and managed areas, warning of avalanches and more people being hurt during rescue operations.

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