Yuji Hirayama big in Japan

Yuji Hirayama’s zest for climbing seems boundless. For the last three decades the Japanese has been a prime player in the international climbing scene, ever since his fast ascents in 1986 of Phoenix and Cosmic Debris, two standard-bearing climbs repeated on his first visit to Yosemite when he was aged a mere 17. Two years later Hirayama repeated Les Specialistes, the steep bulge in the Verson gorge considered one of the hardest in the world at the time, and he also made one of the world's most difficult onsights by walking up to, and waltzing up, the extremely technical 8a Orange Mécanique at Cimaï.

In 1995 he made a faultless, famous onsight of The Sphinx Crack (5.13b/c) in Colorado, and he then successfully transferred this crag fitness to the plastic competition circuit, winning the Lead World Cup in 1998 and confirming his unbeatable form with overall victory once again in 2000, as well as winning the Rock Master trophy twice, in 1991 and 2001. After retiring from competitions, in 2003 he left his mark with Flat Mountain in Japan, making an early first ascent of a 9a+ sports climb therefore that even today is considered one of the hardest in the country.

But Hirayama's penchant for onsighting remained and while in 1999 he onsighted Mortal Kombat in Castillon, an 8c he subsequently downgraded to 8b+, in 2004 he stunned the climbing community with world’s first onsight of an 8c sports climb, White Zombie at the Baltzola cave in Spain.

This groundbreaking moment was nothing more than a stepping stone for one of the world’s greatest allrounders, and unsurprisingly Hirayama soon returned to Yosemite where in 1997 he had narrowly missed out on on-sighting the Salathe route on El Capitan; climbing ground-up over two days, this attempt is widely recognized as one of the most important ascents of this genre. The Big Stone remained a fixed venue and between 2002 and 2008 Hirayama teamed up with Hans Florine to break The Nose speed record a staggering four times, while in 2009 he paid a quick visit to Squamish in Canada where he pulled off a fast repeat of Cobra Crack, one of the hardest trad cracks in the world.

In recent years he has invested much time and energy into developing routes on Mount Kinabalu in Borneo that stand out for their beauty as much as their difficulty and, like many, Hirayama owes much of his success to his constant dedication to hard bouldering. In 2008 he upped his personal ante to send his first 8B+ problems, Ginga at Kanoto and Uma at Siobara, while last year he successfully repeated the similarly difficult Bansosya at Ogawayana. And just to prove that his drive is unbroken, a few days ago Hirayama climbed the rounded bulge at Mizugaki called Minerva. A problem officially graded V14/8B, which Hirayama feels may be slightly easier. Not bad for a 47-year-old!