EP 275: Yuji Hirayama — Japanese Focus, Improving Every Day, and the Secret to Staying Young

The Nugget Climbing Podcast

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:

thenuggetclimbing.com/episodes/yuji-hirayama

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