Bodies of 4 elderly hikers found near mountain trail in Tochigi Prefecture

Totally wrong. This totally depends on your life style. I know a Karate instructor who is 78 and spars with young guys (Shotokan, not Kyokushin though). I grant that if they lived a couch potato lifestyle with junk food, at that age they would have health conditions, but we do not know that. I is certainly not to be expected as "usual".

aren't you being too absolute? how many people out there have a healthy lifestyle and can afford it? if you live in a wealthy country have a good social and economic background and worryfree comfort life, of course you must be healthy even at 78 yrs old even then, though, there are exceptions. yet you claim this amazing guy as an example that if he is amazing then everyone else must be as well. no, my dear, the world is not like that.

Yuuju

being fit at honorable age is not very reliable thing, at this age people usually have one or several chronic conditions, as well as general age fatigue, worsened muscle tonus/coordination and bone demineralization. 

Totally wrong. This totally depends on your life style. I know a Karate instructor who is 78 and spars with young guys (Shotokan, not Kyokushin though). I grant that if they lived a couch potato lifestyle with junk food, at that age they would have health conditions, but we do not know that. I is certainly not to be expected as "usual".

Im sorry if i sound disrespectful to the deceased. It was an accident due to severe weather change mostly. However I do feel like what they decided to do was still quite risky considering their age.

memory, deanza

other activities? Just any that dont include sudden risk factor.

being fit at honorable age is not very reliable thing, at this age people usualy have one or several chronic conditions, as well as general age fatigue, worsened muscle tonus/coordination and bone demineralization. What if some of them got an accident and left bedridden for the rest of their senior age? Will their relatives/caregivers and they themselves find that situation to be easy to deal with in day to day lives? I know that people may get nostalgic or sad reminiscing their youth when they could do more like mountain hiking without fear so they decide they still can do things but thats not how the reality is. Im sure there are safer places to hike.

The photograph accompanying this story appears to show Togenochaya restaurant and its parking area. If only the stricken climbers had been able to make their way to this location and receive some hot soup...

They called for help at 12:30 p.m. The rescue team should have reached them before sunset. Strong winds are not an excuse for professionals to leave people to die.

"Fearing a potential second accident".... rescue is about risk, that is why it is called rescue. They should rename the unit to "Recovery Team".

@Yuuju One encounters plenty of senior hikers and many are remarkably fit climbing at a respectable pace.

What other activities would you suggest at that “honorable age”?

if i happen to get to this honorable age i wouldnt risk my health and life with hiking in mountains. There are plenty of interesting activities beside that.

rip, poor souls

Simply ridiculous.

The police dispatched a rescue team toward the mountain but were forced to suspend operations at sunset due to inclement weather conditions such as gusty winds, fearing a potential second accident.

Wait... so are they saying that no one, none of the rescuers even tried, on foot, to aid the hikers from Sunset until 6AM the next day. Sunset is at around 5:30PM, that is 12 hours. Even with heavy winds, they should have plowed on in the night with the rescue. Why... because each rescuer should be equipped with GPS, reserve batteries for flashlights and be in tip top condition. This didn't have to happen... so if you're out hiking and around noon time someone in your group falls and cannot move... don't expect help anytime soon from Japanese rescuers. You'd think, with all the 10's of thousands of elderly hikers in Japan, that they'd have rescue teams skilled enough to do the rescue under windy conditions.

My bet it was a medical heart condition

“a” heart condition that killed 4 people in one hike?

A new low for you.

Hypothermia? I see Japanese geared up like they're headed up K2 for a little day hike. What are in those packs?

Why did it take police until sunset to abandon the search if the distress call came at 1230 pm?

I work about 5mins from where that photo was taken, it was about 7deg yesterday afternoon and the winds were horrendous. The bad weather had been forecast for days, nobody should have left their cars let alone started hiking up.

I wonder were they people who kept themselves fit in the normal course of their lives, because if so then, accidents aside, climbing a mountain shouldn't have been a problem, even in those temperatures. But if not in this case, then they were being irresponsibly adventurous and risking not only their lives but those of the rescuers.

Sad, I pray for their families.

Time to call it off as temps. drop from now on.

Temperatures have dropped drastically and on the mountain I would surmise that the climbers weren’t dressed for it.

How awful! Must have been terribly cold on the mountain overnight. Apparently tonight it will be going down to 5 degrees Celsius and my altitude is only 1100m!

Hopefully they return home safe and sound

We must have read entirely different articles.

My bet it was a medical heart condition that triggered them out of nowhere being their age. Hopefully they return home safe and sound