I saw this once in the Japanese News. Fuji News Network I think.

I live near Mt. Baker, in Washington state. This happens almost every year on the road up to the ski area there. I was shocked to think that people really thought this could be a hoax. How funny.

Real... I'm sure topography probably helps with the illusion in some ways though...

This is the photograph of the Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route in middle of Japan.
The part called "Yuki no Otani" is located by this road.It is the place of this photograph.The height of the wall of snow this year is a 15m（50ft).
You can see this route's official site.
http://www.alpen-route.com/english/index.html
Have a nice day:-)

"...the valleys echo the shouts of joy."

Professional rotary snowplow with top blower or cutter attachment. No big deal. Just high tech - but not quick or easy work. Most states can only afford a few of these and contract/share them with National Parks. They are difficult to drive and dangerous to operate - particularly if there is any oncoming traffic (now forbidden by code, which makes it difficult to see one in operation). The new units have magnetic sensing to prevent clipping the highway markers (radar is being developed). There are areas that get 50 feet of snow every year that have to open for Memorial weekend (when snowpack is at its deepest) for economic reasons. If you drive Colorado's Million Dollar Highway (Ouray to Silverton) you'll see monuments to the snowplowers killed in the line of duty.

Looks fake to me, the fence posts arent casting any shadow so that seems to indicate the whole picture has been doctored.

it is real, we drove through a similar area in washington state. amazing

Thats easily a hoax. The shadow wouldn't be there with a mound that high.

Hmm, maybe someone is making lots of fakes out there, or it is, as so many have said, possible.
Check out this shot

While on holidays in Swoitserland, its not uncommon to see this kind of pics. During winter this much snow does fall on the different passes, (Sustenpass, Furkapass etc) and indeed they do remove as little snow as needed to get the pass open again in the spring. I`ve seen machines busy removing it. It looks like a big "drill" that "eats" the snow and blows it away to the side. They get that high by creating a sort of stairs system, then go up with the machines and start at the top eating their way lower , layer by layer. If you look on webshots.com you`ll find more pics like this. The Bus is clean because it`s a tourist bus using the road as a simple way to get from A (at one side of the mountain) to B (on the other side of the mountain) Why would it have snow if where it came from it wasn`t snowing? And when its spring, the tourists walking at the sidewalk will not be dressed like its middle of winter because it`ll be around 15-20C

And the shadows story is bs. as you can see by the shortness of the ppls shadows, the sun is high in the sky, probably almost directly over them. Look at the shadow of the bus and you`ll see what I mean.

This is Tateyama Ohtani in northern Japan. The ice wall can get much higher in the winter. This is perhaps a summer shot (yes, even in summer there's snow there). The location is 2,390m above sea level.

Comon, the snow may be real but the pictures is fake. I agree with that snow can get that high but look at the way the people are dressed and that there is now snow melt around. When there are piles of snow and the temperature is above freezing, there is always water run off and in this picture there is none. And the snow in this temperature becomes unstable and could cave in on the bus and people. This picture is NOT REAL.

i have seen roads just like this several times in the middle of summer (4th of july snowboarding trips.) nearly year round examples looking exacly like the image shown can be found simply by visiting bunny flats, @ the 10,000 foot mark on mt. shasta, norcal, by visiting the trail head to the summit of mt. lassen, or by visiting hart lake in the castle craigs wilderness during spring... pretty positive it would be easier to snap a shot rather than hoax it...

definitely japan

This is real. It is northern Japan and the clearing takes some time. When they open the road (same time every year), it is a big event and makes it on the news. This picture actually shows a lower than normal snow wall. It is usually about 20% higher.

The picture seems real to me. I'm staying in Niigata Japan and yes in the countryside the snow is pushed aside and it looks exactly like in the photo after 7 weeks of heavy snow except that it's slightly lower so I believe that picture is not modified.

This picture is real enough, the roadmarks are norwegian and we have several mountainroads where it's common with this amount of snow, and for the ones interessted in the snowshuffle technology I can enlighten you with the fact that snowblower equipment on large trucks want have any problem trowing the snow much higher than this..
we have at least 5 mountainroads that this picture could be taken:

Sognefjell
Haukelifjell
Saltfjellet
Suleskaret fjellovergang
finse fjellovergang

some eksamples:

Found it

Real--I lived up in Hokkaido for 4 years, and the roads up to the hot spring resorts get like that towards the end of the season. They obviously put a lot of effort into maintaining them (it's a bit of a tourist draw).

J

The road is too clean and the "walls" too vertical...it's a fake...

I was driving over a mountain in Montana last June, and I saw a snowbank nearly that tall, but it was just on one side of the road. There were small sticks sticking thru the snow that marked the edge of the road.

It's real--The Japan Times published a similar picture on 18 April 2008 when it announced the opening of the Tateyama-Kurobe Alpen Route.

These are real. I drove through them in Alaska many times! The snow plows have long pipes on the side that blows the snow upward. There aren't exactly dumping grounds for the trucks to take the snow everywhere in AK, so it gets stores on the side. It make a nice mess when it starts to melt. It's real.

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