Masafumi Nagai, Associate Professor at Tokyo Women's College of Physical Education and BSC lecturer at the Japan Avalanche Network, has kindly agreed to participate in the survey
• Survey Overview: "Questionnaire on the Characteristics of Backcountry Skiing and Snowboarding Practitioners"
• Website:https://sites.google.com/view/bcsrs
Survey subjects: Backcountry skiers and snowboarders (those who only engage in mountaineering are excluded)
Survey period: Until March 19, 2023 (Sunday)
Method of response: Response via online questionnaire form
comments on this initiative from Ms. Nagai, who created the questionnaireWe received
"More than 20 years have passed since I started skiing in the backcountry. During that time, I have met many fascinating people, including riders who dedicate their lives to skiing, guides who continue to take guests to amazing fields, and people who are tirelessly working to spread avalanche safety education
I had always wanted to contribute something to this wonderful sport, and now that I'm a university professor, I thought there was something I could do from a research perspective, so I embarked on this survey. Overseas, research on backcountry skiing and snowboarding has begun to increase since around 2010, and the characteristics and behavioral patterns of practitioners are gradually becoming clearer. However, in Japan, apart from research on avalanches in the field of snow and ice science, there has currently been very little progress in research related to backcountry skiing and snowboarding
Although there is not much we can learn from this survey alone, it is important that research related to backcountry skiing and snowboarding increases in Japan as well. We believe that the accumulation of various research results will increase social influence and contribute to the healthy spread of backcountry skiing and snowboarding
I hope that as many people as possible will cooperate with this investigation."
Indeed, there are still many unknown aspects regarding the characteristics of users. When there is a sufficient amount of snow in the mountains, the entire country of Japan becomes the field, and it can be said that this is the origin of skiing and snowboarding, where you slide down as far as you hike up. For those involved in this activity, understanding the characteristics of such people will undoubtedly be of great interest.
STEEP also hopes to support this activity.