WARNING: DISTRESSING CONTENT A man’s body was found two days after authorities were inundated with calls from concerned viewers who had tuned in to Tedzo’s final livestream in 2019
A hiker appeared to livestream his own death and uttered one chilling final word as he plummeted down the face of Mount Fuji.
A man’s body was discovered two days after authorities were flooded with calls from worried viewers who had watched Tedzo’s tragic final livestream in 2019.
Whilst Mount Fuji is a beloved tourist destination and more than 300,000 people trek it annually, climbers are banned from scaling the mountain in Japan during winter months.
Nevertheless, Tedzo tried to conquer the summit of the country’s tallest peak on the afternoon of Monday 29 September, according to the Providence Journal.
The footage reveals a camera’s perspective of the climb, with the mountaineer gasping as he said: “I’m rushing to the peak.”, reports the Express.
He complained about freezing hands, and can be seen attempting to warm them by tucking them beneath his armpits.
“My fingers are losing sensation. I wish I had brought a smartphone holder. It’s in my pocket,” he said.
“My fingers are killing me. Let’s warm them up.”
The route he follows then becomes narrower, with a barrier on the left, before descending downwards.
“Oh, it’s slippery, it’s so slippery, it’s dangerous,” he said, still chuckling.
“Here are rocks. We can follow the rocks. It’s pretty dangerous. I can climb down by sliding,” he said.
“It’s steep. The path is covered with snow . . . Am I on the right path? I’m slipping! Here it’s also dangerous with this slope.”
Finally, he simply uttered: “slipping.”
The chilling sound of his slide can be heard on the livestream, accompanied by flashes of his boots, climbing poles, and a smartphone before it abruptly ends with a freeze frame of the snow, rock and part of a blue pole. A woman’s voice is also audible in the video, seemingly emanating from his phone.
According to public broadcaster NHK, police received several calls from viewers who were watching the man’s perilous ascent. YouTube channel Dark Secrets revealed that the climber, real name Tetsu Shiohara, was battling stage 4 cancer at the time of his death.
In response, police dispatched a helicopter to search for the climber, while a 10-member rescue team commenced a ground search on Tuesday morning, discovering signs of a fall that day. However, they had yet to locate a body.
By the Wednesday, police from the Shizuoka prefecture reported finding a body, but its identity remained unconfirmed, as per NHK.
The official climbing season for the towering 3,776-meter (12,388-foot) peak concluded on September 10, with the official website warning that trails and huts are closed after this date and it is “very dangerous” to attempt to climb the mountain during this period.
Despite this, the U.S. Embassy notes that some climbers still try to scale the mountain during the offseason, adding that every year, “a number of climbers – including Americans – are killed while attempting to climb Mount Fuji.”
In August of the same year, a Russian woman tragically lost her life due to a falling rock. The first snowfall on Mount Fuji was observed on October 22, which was 22 days later than the average year and 26 days later than in 2018, as reported by Japanese media.