Man goes missing in Northern Alps

I hiked Tsurugi in the summer and it was one of the most difficult mountains I have climbed. Similar to alpine style climbing there are lots of chains, ladders and hooks to help you on the way. There are some difficult stretches with plenty of opportunities to fall off. I can't imagine trying to attempt this in the winter.

Mt Tsurugi is one of the most popular mountains in the Alps.

That's not true. Its a long day from Murodo, which itself is several hours from the bottom on an expensive set of ropeways and cable cars when they are running outside winter. This difficult access, as well as the trail difficulty Eric describes, mean that Tsurugi is not one of the "most popular" mountains in the Alps. The Japan Alps includes mountains like Norikura that can be driven up in a bus or taxi. 100 times more people will climb Shirouma, Hotaka, Karamatsu-dake, Tsubakuro etc. than Tsurugi.

Presumably anyone going up there at this time of year is approaching from the west on that ridge that goes up about 2200m. That's super hard and will probably involve winter camping midway.

Fingers crossed for the guy.

Aren't the alps in switzerland?

Even down in Toyama city the weather was rainy and very windy on that day. Can’t imagine what it was like more than 2000m up in the mountains...