Three snowboarders who went missing doing backcountry runs were rescued Sunday in Niigata Prefecture after spending two nights on a mountain, police said.
The two women and one man had climbed the peak to use ungroomed routes away from the recognized runs at the Kagura skiing resort in Yuzawa.
Increasing numbers of people have gone missing outside the marked runs at the resort. The police warned skiers and snowboarders to be better prepared and to register their plans to climb the mountain if they intend to leave the prepared zone.