Yuji Hirayama

Yuji Hirayama (平山ユージ) is a Japanese rock climber, born on February 23, 1969. He was the first Asian climber to win the climbing world cup in 1998, and in 2000 for a second time.

Among his other notable achievements are the first ascent of a possible 5.15a/9a+ called Flat Mountain. And the first onsight of a 5.14b/8c (White Zombie) in 2004. (On 2005 Aug 10, Tomas Mrazek had the 2nd 8c onsight, Pata Negra at Rodellar in northern Spain.)

Hirayama has put up and repeated hard boulder problems, such as the third ascent of Uma V14 at Shiobara in 2008, and the first ascent of Ginga V14 at Kanoto in 2008.

Hirayama is also a big-wall climber with ascents of El Capitan. During September 2002, Hirayama and Hans Florine climbed The Nose in 2:48:55, setting a new speed record. In 2007 this record was broken by the German "Huberbuam" (Alexander Huber and Thomas Huber). The two brothers 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 extended the record to 2:37:05.