Yuji Hirayama

In 2012, he freed a multi-pitch route called Pogulian Do Koduduo in the Mount Kinabalu National Park in Borneo with one pitch in 9a.

In 2010 Hirayama opened "Climb Park Base Camp", a climbing gym in Saitama prefecture, Japan.

In 2008 he has put up and repeated hard boulder problems, such as the third ascent of Uma V14 at Shiobara, and the first ascent of Ginga V14 at Kanoto.

In 2007 his Nose record was broken by the German "Huberbuam", Alexander Huber and Thomas Huber. The two brothers climbed The Nose on October 8, 2007 in 2 hours, 45 minutes and 45 seconds. On July 2, 2008, Hirayama and Florine retook the record in a time of 2:43:33. Then on October 12, 2008, they lowered the record to 2:37:05.

On October 6, 2004 he hit the headlines again by onsighting the 8c (5.14b) White Zombie (Baltzola Cave, ESP). This ascent represented the first 8c onsight in history.). On 2005 Aug 10, Tomas Mrazek had the 2nd 8c onsight, Pata Negra at Rodellar in eastern Spain.

In 2003 he made the first ascent of a proposed 9a+ (5.15a) called Flat Mountain.

On September 29, 2002 Hirayama and Hans Florine climbed The Nose in 2:48:55, setting a new speed record.

On November 25, 1999, Hirayama onsighted Mortal Kombat (Castillon, FRA). This achievement gained some historical relevance because it was initially announced as the world's first 8c (5.14b) onsight, although a few days later, Hirayama himself downgraded the route to 8b+. In the following years, consensus has been reached about Hirayama's rating.

Yuji Hirayama (平山ユージ; born February 23, 1969) is a Japanese rock climber, specializing in lead climbing competitions. He won two Lead World Cup, in 1998 (first Asian climber to win the title), and 2000. He is also famous for being the first climber in history to onsight an 8c (5.14b) route, and for various speed records on El Capitan.