Yuji Hirayama
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Yuji Hirayama is a Japanese rock climber specializing in lead climbing competitions. He won two Lead World Cups, in 1998 and in 2000. He is notable for being the first-ever climber to onsight an 8c ro
Yuji Hirayama at TEDxTokyo 2009
The Nose (El Capitan)
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The Nose is a big wall climbing route up El Capitan. Once considered impossible to climb, El Capitan is now the standard for big wall climbing. It is recognized in the historic climbing text Fifty Cla
Yuji Hirayama
…few days later, Hirayama himself downgraded it to 8b+, which has become the consensus grading. On September 29, 2002, Hirayama and Hans Florine climbed The Nose in 2:48:55, setting a new speed record. In 2003, he made the first ascent of a proposed 9a+ (5.15a) called Flat Mountain…
The Nose on El Capitan
Billy Westbay, Jim Bridwell, and John Long after the first one-day ascent of the Nose in 1975 that used aid climbing techniques (e.g., not full free climbing)
View down the face of El Capitan from the belay stance at the top of pitch 20 (also known as Camp IV). The vertical drop from this point to the valley floor is about 2,000 feet (610 m).
Great Roof as seen from the standard belay stance. With a climber at the end of the lens flare.