Peaceful Mountain 9a FA by Yuji Hirayama (53)

Yuji Hirayama, one of the true climbing legends, reports on Insta that he has done the FA of Peaceful Mountain 9a in Mt Futago. The line starts with an old 8a followed by an 8A+ boulder and a 7b+ top out. (c) Yui Takahashi / Allopsidae LLC

Since 1986, when Yuji did Le Specialist 8b+, the now 52-year-old has been on the cutting edge. In 1991, he won his first World Cup and in 1998, as well as in 2000, he won overall. After his competition career, he made the FA of Flat Mountain 9a/+ in 2003 and the next year he onsighted White Zombie 8c. A few years later he did Cobra Crack 8c trad and the FA of an MP in Borneo including one 9a pitch. In his resume, being one of the best multi-discipline climbers in history, he has also made boulders up to 8B+, DWS up to 8b+, several big walls including also several times have had the Speed record up on El Cap. Since 2010, he runs Climb Park Base Camp which over the years have organized several competitions. He has also been active in the Japanese Federation and helping out IFSC getting climbing into the Olympics. Just over a year ago, he made the FA of Hanabi 8c+ also in Mt Futago.