The worst mountaineering disaster in modern history

December 31, 2021 7:30 PM

Marching through the mountains in winter, what could go wrong? In 1902, Japan was anticipating war with Russia. A training march through the mountains, planned for a single day, went horribly wrong when the unit was overtaken by a blizzard. This is now known as "The Mount Hakkoda Incident". Jirō Nitta wrote a documentary novel about the event which was translated into english (reviewed here). A movie based on his book was produced in 1977. Another documentary novel, "Tragedy in a Blizzard" by Koshu Ogasawara was used for another film made in 2014.

I saw a portion of the 1977 movie and was curious enough to find and read the english translation of "Death March on Mount Hakkoda".

posted by coppertop (4 comments total)

This is fascinating, but is 1902 really "modern history" at this point? I mean, the record keeping on mountaineering can't be even a century older than that, really.

It's a horrible tragedy, regardless whether modern or not.
posted by hippybear at 7:33 PM on December 31, 2021

Thanks for reminding me about that movie. It's supposed to be good.

is 1902 really "modern history" at this point? I mean, the record keeping on mountaineering can't be even a century older than that

"Modern History" is from 1500 or so. I suppose Hannibal might have had a tougher crossing.
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 8:10 PM on December 31, 2021 [1 favorite]

Thanks for the post! Like ChurchHatesTucker, it's given me a nudge to track down the movie, which I've heard about but have never watched.
posted by mydonkeybenjamin at 3:49 PM on January 1, 2022 [1 favorite]

La Grande Guerra – The Italian Front 1915-1918 > Avalanche!:

…During the three-year war in the Austro-Italian Alps at least 60,000 soldiers died in avalanches. [This conservative statistic comes from the research of Heinz von Lichem, in his outstanding three-volume study Gebirgskrieg 1915-1918] Ten thousand died from avalanches in the "lesser" ranges of the eastern half of the high front -- the Carnic and Julian Alps.[2] In the "high" Alps to the west, the Ortler and Adamello groups, the Dolomites, avalanches claimed 50,000 lives. [3]

To put these casualties in perspective, a total of 25,000 troops were killed by poison gas on this war's Western front in Belgium and France. Gas killed an additional 7,000 men on the Austro-Italian front, the greater part on the plain and plateau between the Isonzo and Piave rivers. [Gas is not very effective in the cold windy atmosphere of mountains.]…

The most frightening enemy was nature itself….entire platoons were hit, smothered, buried without a trace, without a cry, with no other sound than the one made by the gigantic white mass itself. – Paolo Monelli.

Too much history passes by us without a trace (or even a glance).
posted by cenoxo at 5:56 PM on January 1, 2022 [5 favorites]