In snow country, snow piled on the mountains crashing down is called "nadare," avalanche. In our region it is written with characters meaning "collapsing snow."
Avalanches happen most often from the end of winter into early spring, when the snow begins to loosen. Huge masses of snow on the mountaintops come crashing down all at once with a roar, flattening trees and filling the valleys. Their force can hurl even great boulders.
Almost no one caught in an avalanche survives. Even when people try to dig out someone buried under the snow, they cannot tell where the person lies, and by the time they find them, they are often already dead.
The Mikuni Highway to Edo runs from Echigo over Mikuni Pass into Joshu. In winter the mountain road is buried in deep snow and exposed to the danger of avalanches. Travelers, it is said, passed quickly and silently through places where avalanches were likely, for people believed that loud noises would set one off.
The people who live in snow country know the terror of avalanches in their bones. Snow crushes houses, closes roads and sometimes takes lives. It is completely different from people in warm lands gazing at the snow for pleasure.