Kyle Smaine Killed In Avalanche

One of two foreign men swept up in an avalanche in Japan while back-country skiing in the central prefecture of Nagano and found without vital signs on Monday was U.S. professional skier Kyle Smaine, an outdoor magazine said.

The men were among five engulfed in Sunday's avalanche, which took place at about 2:30 p.m. (0530 GMT) on the eastern slope of Mount Hakuba Norikura in the ski resort, a Nagano police spokesperson said.

Smaine, a 31-year-old from South Lake Tahoe, Calif., was on a marketing trip for Ikon Pass and Nagano Tourism.

Smaine, 31, died alongside an unnamed Austrian skier after tragedy struck on the slopes of the Hakuba Norikura mountain near the Tsugaike ski resort on Sunday. 

Police declined to confirm details about the men, whom media said were from Austria and the United States, but outdoor magazine "Mountain Gazette" said in its online edition that the U.S. skier was Kyle Smaine, 31.

"It is with great sadness we report beloved South Lake Tahoe Professional Skier Kyle Smaine has died in an avalanche in Japan," the magazine wrote.

Fellow professional skier Adam U was also on the trip but was rescued after he was trapped on the 2,469-metre-high mountain for 25 minutes. “We saw it coming," he told Mountain Gazette. "We heard the crack. We realised it [was] a big one. We started running and then we got hit.”

Smaine won the gold medal in the halfpipe event at the FIS Freestyle Ski and Snowboarding World Championships in 2015. He was one of four Americans to win gold at that year's championships, helping the United States top the medal table with 11 to their credit overall.

The former X Games competitor took to Instagram shortly before Sunday's tragedy and wrote: "This is what brings me back to Japan each winter. Unbelievable snow quality, non-stop storms, and really fun terrain that seems to get better then (sic) more exploring you do."

It said that Smaine, on a work trip to the area, was taking a free ski at the end of the day with several other skiers when the avalanche occurred.

Police had earlier said that the five men were skiing in two separate groups on the mountain, which is 2,469-m (8,100-ft) high. The other three skiers had climbed down the mountain on their own on Sunday.

Weather authorities had issued an avalanche warning for the area, following heavy snowfall in the past few days.