What the elite have done and where the professionals go

For 15 years we have taken the world best climbers all over Asia, including all over Japan to climb ice. We have done this in collaboration with Japans own top climbers, setting Japanese ice climbing well within the top echelons of international destinations.

Far from their being any focal point for elite climbing in Japan, the ice, mixed and alpine routes done at world class level are spread across the country. Professional climbers have done new routes and variations from Hokkaido and Tohoku, down to winter walls, remote pillars and huge faces surprisingly close to Tokyo.

Oyafudo is commonly cited as an international level of climbing, with big vertical ice falls, hanging pillars, thin seams and overhanging mixed lines. Though closed during winter for several years now, the potential for new lines in there is huge, especially as mixed technique evolves and radical tools become better.

Many people know the ice climbing in Sounkyo from the short film from 2006, where Albert Leitchfried and Marcus Bendler sent hard routes when few climbers had heard of Japan. Nearly 20 years later, these routes still form well and access is easy, but these days flocked with tours who take photos from the road.

In Tohoku, Asia’s hardest ice routes were put up by Will Gadd, some never repeated and some kept secret for future return trips. Along with the vanguard stuff Will put up several less-difficult lines, and left lots of new potential after defining what the area around Yamagata could do.

Perhaps Japans foremost alpinists, the Giri Giri Boys collective, put up some of Japans finest routes deep and high in the wilds of the Northern and Southern Alps. The Golden Pillar or Kurobe emulates the pillar of Spantik, and the high granite flanks of Kaikomagatake contain Andean climbing with huge commitment and effort.