The distribution of rockfall and topographical change in Shirouma Daisekkei, the Northern Japanese Alps

Abstract

Shirouma-Daisekkei is one of three largest snow patches in the Japanese Alps. The climbers have suffered accidents by the rock fall and collapse of the rock wall. In August 2008, collapse in the left side slope of snow patch happened, 2 climbers was sacrificed (Kariya et al., 2008). Rockfall accident on shirouma-daisekkei is the greatest number of the climbing accidents with the exception of slipping accident of Japanese mountains that occurred 1992 -2013. In this study, we carried out field survey 2014-2016 so that we reveal the factor of rockfall, collapse, and the topographical change around shirouma-daisekkei.