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They are every backcountry skier’s worst nightmare. Avalanches kill dozens of people across the world every year. And this week, tragedy struck in Japan and claimed the lives of two young New Zealanders. Pierre Nixon and Kurt Bayer report on a double fatality that has devastated families, friends, and a community that knows all too well the risks avalanches present.
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They were known thrill-seekers, always eager to seek out their next adventure.
Joshua Sellens and Isabella Bolton were chasing exactly that on Monday at the 1898m Mt Yōtei on Japan’s second-largest island of Hokkaido – a powder hotspot for skiers and snowboarders.
Nicknamed Ezo Fuji after its similar shape to its taller and more illustrious counterpart Mt Fuji, the multi-layered volcano has no ski lifts or buildings, but many long and picturesque backcountry runs.
The pair were part of a group of six backcountry skiing the picturesque spot after, it’s understood, they entered the area from the Hirafu trailhead.
Just what happened next is still not clear. But around mid-morning, disaster struck. An avalanche came careening down the mountainside at an altitude of around 650m-700m.
A third Kiwi in the party, 21-year-old Lars Meier Blattner was injured along with three others.
It’s understood that he managed to alert authorities of the avalanche about 10am. Japanese police said that the local fire department in the nearby town of Kutchan received a call at 11am, stating that two people were stranded on the mountain.
The local search and rescue team located Sellens and Bolton buried in snow. Both had suffered cardiac and pulmonary arrest, and the rescue team immediately began resuscitation efforts, airlifting them to a local hospital where they were pronounced dead, according to snow sports website Snow Brains.
Blattner, whose family is from Hanmer Springs in North Canterbury, reportedly suffered a shoulder injury.
The Sapporo District Meteorological Observatory said that no avalanche warning was issued for the Mt Yōtei area, nor was it heavily snowing around the time of the incident.
Mt Yōtei in Hokkaido, Japan. Photo / 123rf
The estimated snowfall for the 48-hour period leading up to the incident was 5cm-10 cm, not conducive to avalanche conditions.
But just 15km west of Mt Yōtei, another avalanche hit just after the deadly strike. At 12.40pm, an avalanche was reported at Mt Iwaonupuri, injuring one foreign national.
The news that two Kiwis had been killed overseas slowly filtered back. Word soon spread through snow circles.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade confirmed they were aware of the “tragic incident”.
“It is with a heavy heart that we confirm the passing of our beloved Isabella Bolton, 21, in an avalanche accident in Hokkaido, Japan on Monday 11th March,” the family said in a statement to the Herald.
Isabella Bolton, 21, of Christchurch, died in an avalanche on Mt Yōtei in Hokkaido, Japan on March 11. Photo / Supplied
Born in Watford, England, Bolton grew up in Diamond Harbour and Heathcote Valley near Christchurch, attending Rangi Ruru Girls High School.
Her adventurous spirit and love for skiing and the outdoors led her to study for a diploma in outdoor adventure guiding in Banff, Canada, the family said.
She worked on ski fields in Canada, Tekapo and Wanaka, and in November 2023 travelled to Japan to pursue a job in Niseko, where she had thrived as a ski guide.
The family extended their “deepest sympathy” to the family and friends of her colleague and friend whose life was also tragically lost.
“And to extend our gratitude to those who tried to save Isabella, and the local authorities.”
Sellens studied Japanese at Nelson College until Year 13 and, the day after his exams finished in 2008, he went with a mate to Hokkaido to work at the island’s ski resorts.
An avid outdoorsman, he transferred his skills of working as a ski instructor in New Zealand to teaching Japanese skiers.
“Their updates to their former Japanese teacher have been in increasingly longer instalments of Japanese,” a Nelson College post said.
“So far, the highlights of their experience have been going to a temple on New Year’s and drinking namazake (a cloudy version of sake that has not been as processed and is quite sweet) from bamboo cups, and sitting in outdoor onsens watching monkeys peel and eat mandarins.”
Josh Sellens and Isabella Bolton.
Sellens fell in love with Japan and ended up staying.
The 33-year-old guide was a co-founder of the Japanese adventure company, Niseko Zen.
“[Sellens] practically lives in ski boots during the winters, chasing deep and rich lines in Hokkaido, drinking that always convivial chat on top of the most exciting skis this island has to offer,” the company’s website said.
A tribute post uploaded by the other co-founder of Niseko Zen, Saki Hayashi, read: “With deep sadness, I reach out to all friends of Josh Sellens to come and join us in celebrating the amazing life he lived and the great human that he was.”
He also shared his “deepest condolences” to the family and friends of Bolton.
“She was a true shredder with a heart of gold,” Hayashi said.
The double Kiwi catastrophe was felt widely back home, in a country that is far from immune to the killer phenomenon. According to a 2021 New Zealand Mountain Safety Council (MSC) report, there were 742 reported “avalanche incidents” from 1999 to 2018, including 27 fatalities. Of those deaths, 19 involved mountaineers, two were trampers, and three were heliskiers. Backcountry skiing and snowboarding each had just one fatality.
“Thankfully, New Zealand does not experience the same amount of avalanche fatalities as other developed nations. However, when accounting for our small population our numbers are relatively similar,” the MSC said in its 2021 conclusions.
“The potential for tragedy is always present, and a continued reduction in avalanche incidents is always desired.”
In 2018, two mountain guides, Martin Hess and Wolfgang Maier, both New Zealand residents, were killed in an avalanche near Aoraki/Mt Cook.
The experienced pair were working with Jo Morgan, the wife of Gareth Morgan, who miraculously survived after setting off her personal locator beacon after being trapped in snow for at least 30 minutes.
Experienced Wanaka-based ski guide and avalanche expert Peter Bilous told the Herald that backcountry skiing has become increasingly popular but, like other adventure sports including mountain biking and surfing, it comes with “definite inherent risks”.
He said backcountry conditions in New Zealand are probably more dangerous than Japan, but people always needed to be vigilant.
“You can get away with being lucky for a long time in Japan. A lot of people get away with a scare, perhaps go away and do an avalanche course, but sometimes it’s worse than a scare, like it was in this case,” said Bilous, who is senior lecturer at Otago Polytechnic’s avalanche and snowsport instruction programme.
He spoke of a “daily process” to follow which can minimise the risk involved in backcountry skiing, including the need to understand the snowpack and how current and recent weather can affect it.
“It’s one of those things you need to be really diligent in doing - and everybody in the party needs to be on board with the process,” Bilous said.
“You have to know what the nature of the beast is that you are dealing with. Avalanches are very different in their nature, they can be like little soft puppies or rabid rottweilers.
“When the sun comes out and the stoke is high, things can easily get missed and short-changed. It’s more common than you think and one of the reasons there aren’t more accidents is pretty much luck.”
Travelling safely in avalanche terrain requires three essential components, says the MSC - the skills, equipment and forecast.
NZ Avalanche Advisory, run by the MSC, currently has just one warning on its site, a “low” rating on its avalanche danger scale for Aoraki/Mt Cook, saying the country’s tallest mountain, in very early autumn, has “generally safe avalanche conditions ... watch for unstable snow on isolated terrain features”.
Pierre Nixon is the Herald’s South Island breaking news reporter based in Christchurch. He joined NZME in 2022 as a multimedia journalist for Newstalk ZB.
