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)[1] and in 2000.[2] He is notable for being the first-ever climber to onsight an 8c (5.14b) route, and for his various speed records on El Capitan.
Climbing career
On November 25, 1999, Hirayama onsightedMortal Kombat (Castillon, FRA), which gained some historical relevance because it was initially believed to be the world's first onsight of an 8c (5.14b); however, a few days later, Hirayama himself downgraded it to 8b+,[3] which has become the consensus grading.[4]
In 2003, he made the first ascent of a proposed 9a+ (5.15a) called Flat Mountain.[6]
On October 6, 2004, he onsighted the 8c (5.14b) graded White Zombie in Baltzola Cave, ESP. This was the world's first-ever onsight of an 8c in history.[4][7]). On 2005 Aug 10, Tomas Mrazek had the 2nd 8c onsight, Pata Negra at Rodellar in eastern Spain.[8]
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.[9] On July 2, 2008, Hirayama and Florine retook the record in a time of 2:43:33.[10] Then on October 12, 2008, they lowered the record to 2:37:05.[11]
In 2008, he made the third ascent of boulder problem, UmaV14 (8B+) at Shiobara, and the first ascent of GingaV14 (8B+) at Kanoto.[12] In 2009, he made the 6th ascent of Cobra Crack in Squamish, British Columbia.
^"Yuji Hirayama first to onsight 8c!". planetmountain.com. Note: The title of this article is misleading, as the article contains an interview in which Hirayama downgraded the route to 8b+
