EP 280: Yuji Hirayama
June 23, 2025
Yuji Hirayama is a Japanese professional climber and a living legend. We talked about visualizing his onsight attempt on The Salathe, channeling support into power, Daniel Woods, Mount Kinabalu, Japanese vs. Western culture, quitting school to climb, owning climbing gyms, how to stay 9a fit in your 50s, the secret to staying young, and much more.
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Show Notes:
Related Episodes:
References:
Onsighting the Sphinx Crack (first paragraph)
Yuji’s Links:
Nuggets:
00:00:00 – Intro
00:02:10 – The Professionals film
00:12:30 – Attempting to onsight the Salathe
00:22:04 – Channeling support into power
00:30:26 – Challenge, change, & Daniel Woods
00:36:53 – Mount Kinabalu
00:50:23 – How Yuji has changed
00:57:15 – Why Yuji climbs
01:03:40 – Japanese vs. Western culture
01:09:35 – Yuji’s parents
01:11:58 – Early climbing
01:14:22 – Running
01:19:05 – Quitting school to climb
01:24:20 – Who inspires Yuji
01:28:02 – How climbing has changed
01:31:16 – Owning gyms
01:40:33 – Karaoke
01:41:18 – Wine, Dine, & Climb
01:43:07 – Staying 9a fit in your 50s
01:47:03 – Japanese focus on hard climbing
01:48:54 – The next trip
01:51:33 – The secret to staying young
01:55:32 – Wrap up