Alan Taylor is a senior editor at The Atlantic.

Japan's famed "snow monsters" may actually be ghosts of an ancient blast. For years, the hulking, ice-coated trees that blanket the Zao mountain range each winter have been explained largely by ...

Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Japan’s winter has ushered in the return of Mount Zao’s , or “snow monsters.” Near-constant blizzard conditions prevail on Zao’s ...

Somewhere in the world, winter transforms a mountainside into an entire army of ghostly white giants. These aren't sculptures carved by human hands; they're trees completely encased in thick layers of ...

On February 10, 2026, in Yamagata Prefecture, Japan, extreme cold and strong winds sculpted frost-covered trees known as Snow Monsters at Zao Onsen Ski Resort.

Yamagata, Japan, Feb. 5, 2012: The “snow monsters,” or “juhyo” in Japanese, at the top of Mount Zao in Yamagata, Japan, are actually windswept, snow-covered trees. The formation of the thick frost and ...