Each winter, the mountains of Japan's Tateyama region receive such staggering amounts of snow that entire roads disappear beneath it.
When crews finally begin clearing the route for its spring reopening, they carve a passage through snow packed over months of storms, revealing walls that can rise as high as 20 meters (66 feet), towering above buses and visitors alike.
These breathtaking corridors are part of the Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route in Toyama Prefecture.
The route was originally maintained to provide access across the mountains, including to facilities at Murodo near Mt. Tateyama, but the snow walls became so extraordinary that they evolved into one of Japan's most celebrated seasonal attractions.
Today, thousands of visitors travel there each spring to experience the famous "Snow Valley Walk," strolling between giant walls of snow that can dwarf people, vehicles, and even double-decker buses.
The exact height changes from year to year depending on snowfall, but in exceptional seasons the walls have reached an astonishing 66 feet, turning an ordinary mountain road into a frozen canyon unlike almost anywhere else on Earth.
