Halfpipe gold medalist at the 2015 Worlds, American snowboarder Kyle Smaine (31) would be one of the two victims who died in an avalanche that occurred on Sunday January 29 in Japan.
Terrible drama in Japan. Two men were found dead after being caught in an avalanche on Sunday in the central region of Nagano. If the Japanese authorities were unable to identify the victims, an American ski magazine indicated that Kyle Smaine (31), halfpipe gold medalist at the World Championships in Kreischberg (Austria) in 2015, had perished in an avalanche in Japan . Two men, who accompanied the American snowboarder, also posted messages on Instagram indicating that he had been killed in an avalanche.
The two deceased men were off-piste with 11 other skiers and snowboarders when the avalanche hit. Three other people were caught in the avalanche but managed to get out. Unlike Kyle Smaine, even if the police chief could not confirm the identity of the two men found on Monday, nor their nationality.
That didn’t stop fans from paying tribute to him in a video posted to his Instagram account on Sunday. “That’s what keeps me coming back to Japan every winter. Incredible snow quality, non-stop storms, and really fun terrain that seems to get better the more you explore,” he wrote. A few hours before his tragic disappearance.
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