HOWZAT

“We couldn’t believe it,” Mr Holmes said of their bad luck and calamitous turn of events.

A search helicopter flew overhead and spotted the group, but as it was getting dark the local authorities deemed it too dangerous to perform a rescue attempt.

Meanwhile on the ground, the group realised no help was on its way so they decided to dig in for the night.

They dug a dome-shaped hole barely big enough to fit the six of them and were so cold one of the girls slept lying across the whole group to keep warm from their body heat. Temperatures in the area fell to 40F (minus 4.5C) in foggy and rainy conditions overnight.

According to Mr Holmes, who was wearing only a t-shirt, hooded pullover and thin jacket, the group barely slept because of the cold – and one person’s snoring.

He said they tried to keep each other’s spirits up, but some were concerned about what would happen next.

"When we were freezing cold and everyone was pitching in trying to build this cave, there was complete silence and people were thinking all sorts of things,” he said.

“But one guy is a professional snowboarder who has been doing it for 10 years so he kind of became the dad to us and made us feel better about being rescued the next day.”

At daybreak the search and rescue team returned to the area, with 50 military officers on hand to look for the missing foreigners. When the helicopter spotted them and two rescue crew were winched down to take them from the mountain, the group knew they were safe.

“It was like all our Christmases came at once,” Mr Holmes said.

Mr Holmes, who is half Japanese but lived most of his life in London, moved to Hokkaido late last year to work over the ski season.

He said while he loves the area and loves living in Japan where he works as an estate agent, he won’t be returning to Mt Kurodake anytime soon.

“It certainly wasn’t fun, I’m glad I’ve done it now though because I’m not going back,” he said.

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