Rough weather kills two Japanese climbers

TOKYO, Mar 21 (Reuters) Two Japanese mountain climbers were found dead on a peak in the northwest of the country today, after being trapped by high winds and snow for more than a day, police said.

The two climbers, both women, were part of a group of nine people trapped on Sennokura, a 2,026 metre (6,647 ft) peak in the northwestern prefecture of Niigata, by one of a series of winter storms that struck northern Japan over the past few days.

The other seven climbers were rescued.

''It was complete blizzard conditions, and we couldn't see a thing. Before we knew it, two people had disappeared,'' one of the rescued climbers told NHK national television.

Yesterday, three people froze to death on Yatsugatake, a mountain in the central prefecture of Nagano.

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