Farewell to Keita Kurakami

World-class rock climber Keita Kurakami passed away on 26 June 2024 on Mount Fuji in Japan. According to explorersweb, the 38-year-old, who had been diagnosed with ventricular arrhythmia after collapsing in 2021, was hiking with a friend when he lost consciousness and died.

Described by many as one of the purest and kindest climbers of his generation, softly spoken Kurakami set the bar extremely high with his climbs that covered the entire spectrum from big walls to highball boulder problems.

In 2017 he made headline news with the the first ascent of Neutralism, a huge highball boulder problem in Japan climbed with a no-compromise, ground-up approach. The video below provides an idea about the mental and physical fortitude needed for the send. A year later he spent five consecutive days climbing The Nose on El Capitan in Yosemite solo and all free. This ground-breaking achievement was the first rope solo free ascent of The Nose, and it came a year after Kurakami had climbed all pitches free but, due to bad weather, not consecutively. He himself was the first not to consider the 2017 repeat a "true free ascent" and his return in 2018 raised the stakes considerably: he fell more than ten times, lowered off to the stance, and pulled the ropes before leading the pitches free.

In 2019 Kurakami took his big wall rope-solo skills to the lower lying crags where he made an ascent of Mare, an 8c+ sport climb at Mt. Futago. At the time his feat was hailed as the most difficult rope-solo ever of a single pitch sports climb. Even more remarkable however was the ground-up style he employed. Commenting after the climb, he explained "It was big progress for pushing the limit of my solo skills."

Kurakami quit his job that year to become a full-time climber - a decision particularly difficult in Japanese society - but never looked back and was fully committed to his art. After his cardiac problems in 2021 he briefly flouted with the idea of following the doctor's advice and giving up climbing altogether, but then chose to follow his passion. "I chose a life with climbing over the risk to my own life" Kurakami is reported to have said. In an interview with a Japanese magazine in 2022 he explained "I thought that giving up climbing would be a choice I would regret later on. Even if I lived to be 70 or 80 without climbing, would that really be a happy life for me?"

Kurakami continued to push the limits with his commendable style in all different realms. In 2023 he decided, for the first time ever, to check out a hold on toprope before going on to establish Discovery on the island of Yakushima.

His writings to planetmountain after his ascent offered a fascinating window into his approach to climbing and life in general, and are well worth exploring once again "In my bouldering career, I have always been obsessed with ground-ups, and hanging on a rope to check holds on a boulder was the most uncool compromise I had ever made as a climber.

In fact, Discovery was the first time in my life that I hung on a rope to check a hold on a boulder, and until then, I thought that hanging on a rope on a boulder was like admitting my weakness as a climber and losing the value of climbing. I had always thought that if I compromised on my style of climbing, I would never be able to climb with any satisfaction.

But Discovery, which took the biggest compromise of all, still became one of the best climbs of my bouldering career. It may be the first time since Senjitsu no Ruri and The Nose - rope solo free - that I have cried after completing the climb.

Is it the ego that is preserved by holding on to that obsession and pride? Or the experience gained by letting go of them? I don't know which is more valuable in life.

The only thing I can say, however, is that because I have kept that pride for 20 years, I have had the best opportunity to let go of it, and I have gained a deeper experience and discovery by letting go of it."

 

 

 

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