Yuji Hirayama

Yuji Hirayama (平山ユージ; born February 23, 1969) is a Japanese rock climber specializing in lead climbing competitions. He won two Lead World Cups, in 1998 (becoming the first Asian climber to win the title) and in 2000. He is notable for being the first-ever climber to onsight an route, and for his various speed records on El Capitan.

Climbing career

On November 25, 1999, Hirayama onsighted Mortal Kombat (Castillon, FRA), which gained some historical relevance because it was initially believed to be the world's first onsight of an ; however, a few days later, Hirayama himself downgraded it to 8b+, which has become the consensus grading.

In 2003, he made the first ascent of a proposed called Flat Mountain.

On October 6, 2004, he onsighted the graded White Zombie in Baltzola Cave, ESP. This was the world's first-ever onsight of an 8c in history. ). On 2005 Aug 10, Tomas Mrazek had the 2nd 8c onsight, Pata Negra at Rodellar in eastern Spain.

In 2007, his El Capitan Nose record was broken by the German brothers Alexander Huber and Thomas Huber. The Hubers climbed The Nose on October 8, 2007, in 2 hours, 45 minutes and 45 seconds. On July 2, 2008, Hirayama and Florine retook the record in a time of 2:43:33. Then on October 12, 2008, they lowered the record to 2:37:05.

In 2008, he made the third ascent of boulder problem, Uma at Shiobara, and the first ascent of Ginga at Kanoto. In 2009, he made the 6th ascent of Cobra Crack in Squamish, British Columbia.

In 2012, he freed a multi-pitch route called Pogulian Do Koduduo in the Mount Kinabalu National Park in Borneo with one pitch at 9a.

Business career In 2010, Hirayama opened "Climb Park Base Camp", a climbing gym in Saitama prefecture, Japan.