An International
Celebration ofGrand Alpinism

Piolets d’Or 2021

©Yasushi Yamanoi

Press Release #3 - October 2021
Yasushi Yamanoi - 13th Piolets d'Or Career Award (2021)***Seen from Europe our view of Japanese mountaineering can often be cloudy.
On the one hand Japan has a very proliﬁc history in exploration and ﬁrst
ascents, notably in the Himalaya and Karakoram. On the other hand, weassociate that history almost entirely with large-scale, siege-style ascents. Inthe last two decades we have seen an emergence of bold climbs inalpine-style from young Japanese alpinists, for example, members of the "GiriGiri Boys", Kazuya Hiraide, and the ﬁrst female to have her new route awardeda Piolet d'Or, Kei Taniguchi. Their climbs have received considerable applause,and several have been awarded Piolets. However, the name of one of theircountrymen was known globally for his impressive alpine-style climbing wellbefore the new millennium. That name – Yasushi Yamanoi – perhaps lessrecognizable in the Western Hemisphere but revered in his own country, ﬁrst
started to appear in international mountaineering magazines in the second
half of the 1980s. The journey of this "true man of honour, a sort ofcontemporary Samurai", as ropemate, friend and Piolets Career Awardee,Voytek Kurtyka, likes to describe him, is a voyage of great adventure,achievement, and style through major climbing arenas of the world.

THE 2021 EDITION OF THE PIOLETS D'OR
WILL TAKE PLACE FROM THE 26TH-29TH
NOVEMBER IN THE BEAUTIFUL MOUNTAIN CITY
OF BRIANÇON, FRANCE.

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South face of Trapecio (Peru), 2013
©Yasushi Yamanoi

Yasushi Yamanoi was born in 1965 and started climbing, on his own, after being
inspired by the French ﬁlm, Mort d'un Guide. By 14 he was climbing short rockroutes, and in high school he free soloed many multi-pitch climbs, leading
other activists to describe him as "the man closest to heaven". After leaving
school Yamanoi concentrated on improving his rock skills, endeavouring tobecome extremely proﬁcient in crack climbing and hard aid. Where else togo in the mid-1980s but America. He spent three to ﬁve months in the USA
each year from 1984 to 1987 [at times working in a Los Angeles restaurant]
and was able to come away with ascents of Cosmic Debris (5.13a), and theinfamous Sphynx Crack (5.13b) in the South Platte area of Colorado. At thistime, he was free soloing routes of 5.11a. In 1987 he travelled to the Alps tomake the ﬁrst solo ascent of the French Direttissima on the Dru. A new routeand a big adventure, again solo, on the 1,400m west face and north ridge ofMount Thor, Baﬃn Island, followed. Then in July 1990 he mademountaineering history by becoming the ﬁrst person to solo Fitz Roy in winter.
He entered the world of high altitude climbing in 1991, when as part of aconventional Japanese expedition he reached the summit of Broad Peak.
Whilst the experience convinced him that he would never again climb in thisheavyweight style, the expedition had other beneﬁts: also reaching the summit
was Taeko Nagao, one of Japan's leading female mountaineers. They wouldbecome inseparable partners, marrying in 1996. The following year Yamanoi
would summit Ama Dablam during the Nepalese winter via a new route on thewest face and southwest ridge.
In post monsoon 1994, on Cho Oyu, Yamanoi joined an extremely elite club,
whose few members have soloed an independent new route on an 8,000m
peak. While Taeko, with another female Yuka Endo, made the second ascent of
the Kurtyka-Lorétan-Troillet route on the southwest face, Yamanoi climbed a
new 2,200m line to the left. Arriving at the summit before the female team,Yamanoi had to ﬁnd his way down the normal route, which had no track at thattime. He feels this was his ﬁnest ascent, although for the most technicallydiﬃcult climbing of his mountaineering career he cites his solo ﬁrst ascent ofthe east face of Kusum Kanguru in 1998.
A return to the Karakoram in 1995 resulted in the ﬁrst ascent of the southwest
face of Bublimotin, an 800m wall at 5.10 A3+ above the Hunza Valley, Pakistan.

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It was climbed capsule style in 12 days with Taeko and Daisaku Nakaga. Fiveyears later the couple would join forces with Voytek Kurtyka for an attempt on theunclimbed east face of K2. Thwarted on this objective by bad weather,
Yamanoi made a solo ascent of the south-southeast spur (commonly referred to as
the Cesen Route), reaching the summit in 48 hours – the fastest ascent of the routeat the time. Naturally, it was without supplementary oxygen. Next year the three
returned to attempt the north face of Latok I, but the weather interfered again andinstead they made a new route – Vertical Picnic (5.10 A2) - on Biacherahi Central,
climbing the south face over six days.
Yamanoi would also make his mark on Peru, where in 1997 he soloed a new routeon the southeast face of Huandoy Este, and in 2013, with Masaru Noda, the ﬁrst
ascent of the southeast face of Puscanturpa Este.
The 2002 expedition to Tibet to make the second ascent of the Slovenian Route on
the north face of Gyachang Kang, the rarely climbed 15th highest summit in theworld, would be life changing for the couple. Climbing in pure alpine-style Taeko
stopped at 7,600m, leaving Yasushi to reach the summit alone in deteriorating
weather. The descent turned into a major epic of avalanches, loss of vision, andfrostbite. On returning to Japan both underwent considerable amputations (Taeko
had already lost digits on Makalu), with Yasushi losing all toes on his right foot and a
total of ﬁve ﬁngers. Characteristically, before evacuation from below the mountain,
Taeko had made Yasushi promise that they would return to remove all theirgarbage, which they were unable to take out.
Recovery was understandably slow, but by 2005 Yasushi was able to put up a ﬁne
new route on the north face of Potala Shan in the Siguniang National Park, China.
Jiayou, climbed in capsule style over seven days of generally poor weather, had 18
pitches up to 5.8 A3+, though the summit was not reached. Later, with his wife andSatoshi Kimoto, he would put up Orca (1,250m, 5.10+ A2) on the rock walls of Milne
Land, East Greenland, and by 2011 had – impressively - reﬁned his crack climbing tomake an ascent of Zombie Roof (5.13a) at Squamish. His latest ascent in theHimalaya, in 2017 with Takaaki Furuhata [with whom he had previously been forced
to retreat from high on the coveted north face of Kangchung Nup in the Khumbu],
was the ﬁrst of Rucho, a 5,970m peak in India.
But we should look beyond these successful ﬁrst ascents to a remarkable collectionof solo attempts in excellent style. The month before his ascent of Ama Dablam,Yamanoi made a spirited attempt on a new line up the 1,200m west face of Mera
Peak, Nepal. The Japanese spent ﬁve days climbing 26 pitches up to UIAA VI and A4
before having to retreat from close to the end of the diﬃculties when the wallabove turned blank. He retreated from 7,000m on the still unclimbed east face ofGasherbrum IV, from 7,300m on Makalu when hit by a stone on the unclimbed west
face, from the west face of the rarely visited Karjiang - a 7,000m peak on the TibetBhutan border, and from part way up the still unclimbed northwest ridge of Tahu
Ratum in the Karakoram.
Yasushi Yamanoi has generally adopted a humble lifestyle, originally living asimple life during the winter months with income earnt from portering on
Mount Fuji. This and his charisma are factors that have endeared him to many
climbers, not only in Japan but also in South Korea. His 2004 autobiography, VerticalMemories, written during his frostbite convalescence, was highly popular in Japan,
but the 2005 book, Frozen, by famous Japanese author, Kotaro Sawaki, about theGyachung Kang survival, became a best seller and made Yamanoi's name wellknown in Japan to those outside the climbing community. In 2011 he was therecipient of the second Piolets d'Or Asia Career Award.
Whether solo, as a married couple, or with friends, Yasushi Yamanoi's climbing has
shown great creativity, commitment, and resilience. His minimalist style and often
discreet ascents paved the way for younger Japanese climbers to operate inmodern alpine-style. Together with a great respect for the environment
through which he travelled, these qualities make Yasushi Yamanoi a worthy
recipient of the 13th Career Award.
Lindsay Griﬃn and Rodolphe Popier, with input from Hiroshi Hagiwara

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