Girigiri-MARCH (Japanese Edition)

Though climbers should leave no physical marks on a mountain, we like to believe our passion remains on the lines we draw. We want to follow the lines that only we can make out, that only we can climb. To my regret, I have never encountered a line on which I could express myself fully. But those two made their statement just by leaving their tracks.

Although the footsteps in the snow will disappear, the path in the photo retains their passion. For a full description of Denali's routes, see Alpinist 24's Mountain Profile. It's not easy to answer. The name doesn't really mean anything. But to understand Giri-Giri, you need some notion of Shi-Shi. And for you to understand Shi-Shi, I must first tell you about climbing in Japan. Try wading through chest-high snow for a day to get to a meter wall. Once you're there, the rock is often fragile and covered with vegetation. Useless bolt ladders and ancient, deadly anchors limit the climbable lines, and it's rare to have a panoramic view because topping out typically involves crawling into a giant thicket.

It sounds hopeless, but I really like Japan's walls. I like them because their innate shortcomings force a new perspective.

Ai Giri Giri

Lately, I've been ignoring existing anchors to figure out my own lines, onsight, no topo necessary. Some people think such climbing is unsophisticated. It gives us space for creativity. The quantity of climbing in Japan is still limited. But there is a solution to that, too. The apex of the traverse, Mt. Tsurugi m , symbol of Japanese mountaineering, is visible as the highpoint in the distance. From where they are in this photo, the climbers have to descend to the Kurobe River, cross the next mountain and then keep climbing to Mt. They managed the traverse in the heart of winter in fourteen days.

Pachinko gets its name from a popular s pinball game in Japan, with its erratic up-and-down movements on irregular trajectories. Simply put, Pachinko is a linkup of multiple routes, and it helps us train for bigger mountains abroad. Words and translations are never simple, though: It can push you to your limits. The Kurobe Traverse is the essence of Pachinko. From the end of to the beginning of , I spent fourteen days playing it.

The linkup entails crossing the Kurobe River and climbing Mt.

1999 singles

Tsurugi m , an intricate peak far removed from the world below, with storms that can leave more than a meter of wet snow per night. We descended with difficulty to the valley floor, waded naked through the icy water and climbed onto the steep flanks of the mountain. A blizzard pinned us down for days, and then an avalanche slid us meters. I began to understand our own insignificance. But the more time we spent on the Kurobe Traverse and the more energy we put into it, the more beautiful it became.

And as I played this particular Pachinko, I realized that all climbing is illogical. Because we live in a modern, rational world, the value of climbing increases with its irrationality. Pachinko—climbing up, coming back down, then repeating the process—has no rationale. It could be the answer to this age of advanced equipment, technical skills and information: Does our reliance on these means weaken our passion?

If so, pick a mountain range. Open a map and trace a route, any route. When you do, you might see that we've only been playing on a portion of a mountain. The more you think about how to enjoy the mountain fully, the more possibilities you'll discover. Many climbers clutch guidebooks as they seek their routes—but climbing's not about climbing a topo; it's about climbing a wall.

On my first visit to Alaska in , from the Tokositna Glacier, the moment Itchy and I looked at the southwest face of Huntington, we saw a new line present itself. We studied it, and then, though we struggled in the foreign Alaskan terrain, we climbed it. The scale of Alaskan mountains dawned on us. Though we ran up the wall to the summit, the thought of a meter descent seemed exhausting.

As we down climbed the blue ice on the summit ridge, we knew that if our concentration broke, we'd fall to the glacier. We had no information. We couldn't see what was ahead of us. Once, as I rappelled, free hanging, into nothingness, the rope passed through my device and I almost took the plunge. Itchy didn't say much, but I could tell from his gaze that he was holding inside himself the spirit of a warrior. We reached the glacier just before daybreak. There, we lay on our backs for a while, unable to move. At base camp, all we could do was drink sake and stare at the wall.

Itchy showed me a book he'd brought to Alaska about Ryoma Sakamoto, a nineteenth-century Japanese samurai and a Shi-Shi, a "man of inner resolution. We named our route Shi-Shi after the philosophy he shared: Climbing can be that simple—you try to draw a line from the bottom to the top; if you fail, you may die. Though the route seemed doable as long as we followed the ice, we could not overcome one five-meter section.

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During our retreat we became immersed in something unknown. It was the energy of the mountain, that strange air that made me feel it wouldn't let us escape so easily. Over two days and a mere meters, we felt its relentless power. Deep, unstable snow covered the slabs. The rock would not even accept a piton. We continued blindly and in silence.

I wanted to be stronger. I began to feel that the more important the route was to me, the more important it became to climb it with style. I wanted to paint my way of living with the lines I climbed. Three months later, Itchy, Tats and I traveled with Yuki Sato to Bolivia, where we played with multipitch climbs and bouldering to our hearts' content. On the south face of Nevado Illimani m , the highest mountain in the Cordillera Real, we established four new routes.

One we named Phajsi Face "Moon" in the local Aymara language and another, the Inti Face "Sun" , because as Tats said, "Our souls were raised like those objects by this adventure. Still, I remained preoccupied with my experience on the Buckskin. For exceptional routes I decided to face them naked, engaging them with my true self. This is the central meaning of the phrase "Shi-Shi. At first, it was a joke: Two years ago at the Talkeetna Air Taxi of office, we were waiting for the pilot Paul Roderick to fly us to the Alaska Range, when a receptionist asked us the name of our expedition.

We didn't have one. But when people started calling us the Giri-Giri Boys, the name stuck. And one night back in Japan over sake, it all made sense. We barely have enough money, experience or technique. We're barely young enough to call ourselves boys perhaps we're too old already.

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But we want to face the mountain with overflowing motivation and ambition, and we want to climb to our bare limit. Doing so, I believed, would lead us to something that would let our passion take shape. Somehow the east face of the Bears Tooth appeared even more intimidating than it had two years earlier. We looked at each other for a moment, then our laughter echoed across the glacier. Half the snow on the lower slab was missing and the exposed rock seemed impossible to climb.

Even if we were able to bypass this slab section, above it lay meters of vertical, thin ice—endless, runout, nerve-wracking climbing on the tips of our picks. All we could do was gape at the wall with our mouths open: During a break in the weather we headed for our backup plan: I'd had my eyes on this line for years.

But from the glacier we couldn't see beyond a single line of thin ice on an extremely steep slab. We'd have to decide what to do on the rest of the wall when we got there.

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At first, the angle daunted us. Yet the line had a sense of presence to it, far more so than the nearby chimney. I told them I wanted to extend our maximum energy toward this enormous mountain and to climb the line it drew from us. If it wasn't to be the east face, it might be this northeast one. Eventually, we all agreed. Itchy led the first uncertain pitch. Before continuing on to the next one, he exclaimed, "I'm psyched!

Before we knew it, curtains of snow covered the wall, ending our play. The snow continued the following morning So, we ate, drank and played cards—shortcuts to geriatric diseases. The line was steeper than anything we'd experienced; we had to feel the pulse of the mountain in order to climb it swiftly. Yusuke instinctively switched to aid in the corner, so that Itchy and I would not become worried or impatient. But we made sure to mock him: I struggled on the pendulum traverse that followed. Every time I bumped against the rock, Itchy and Yusuke hooted. Then Itchy led the beginning of the upper wall, a delicate slab with small edges and thin ice.

On the evening of the second day, we reached a cornice. We were almost at the top. Itchy tackled the steep wall above. Soon he must have agreed. I went the wrong way! Yusuke, who was to lead the next pitch, mumbled in protest.

Ai Giri Giri | Revolvy

But when he began, he slung a knob, then freed the crack above effortlessly. I pulled around the last dangerous cornice to the brilliant smiles of my friends. Behind them lay the huge expanse of Denali. I planned to play Pachinko on it. In May five of us Giri-Giri boys would play two separate games. It didn't take me long to come up with the idea of linking the Isis Face and the Slovak Direct.

I wanted to climb the Isis because I'd met its first ascensionist, Jack Tackle, and I'd seen his clear eyes brighten as he told me its story. It had taken him four years of attempts, but even though he'd been unable to climb to the summit from the end of the route, his excitement never faded. By continuing to the top, perhaps I could take part in his passion. Ichimura left and Sato follow the upper section of the first rockband on Denali's Isis Face. The climbers simulclimbed the entire route in three days, one of which was spent in a snow cave waiting out a storm.

I admit, the whole idea was slightly mad. There weren't too many friends, apart from Yusuke and Itchy, who could take it seriously. When we talked about the plan to local climbers, they'd smile, throw their hands in the air, shake their heads, and say "Crazy! They described the Isis and the Slovak as "difficult" and "routes with few repeats. I'd first told Tats and Yuto about the ridge that extended from the Kahiltna Peaks to the Cassin while we acclimated on the West Buttress. Tats declared the project "The Real Cassin" because it would make an already classic line even better.

They were the kind of climbers who valued the beauty of a line more than the accomplishment. Our linkup, from May , would be neither. We desired to immerse ourselves deeply in the mountain. And once we began, we remembered how simple it is just to keep on climbing! We started simulclimbing up the Isis, stretching the pitches, and by the end of Day One we were already about halfway up.

On Day Two, however, the weather trapped us in our bivy cave. We were hesitant to stake out so early in the game, but the golden rule of Pachinko is to rest when you can and make solid progress when you move. Other significant achievments by the Giri-Giri Boys include first ascents on the north faces of Kalanka and Tawoche, a second ascent of Daddomain, and a first time enchainment of the Isis Face and the Slovak Direct on Denali. Yasushi Okada photo, americanalpineclub.

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At the edge of our ability, at the edge of what has been done before. We also live at the edge financially. So our life is literally at the edge. The south face of Mt. Jack Tackle photo, americanalpineclub. It was the biggest unclimbed wall in North America: Logan, in four days. Located in the St. It is the highest peak in Canada and is second only to Denali for highest in North America. Our joy was beyond words. A single thread seemed to connect all those who confronted Logan before—and all those who helped us.

The Isis Face is the prominent discontinuous ridge line in the center. Jack Tackle photo, Alpinist. The enchainment, which marked the third ascent of the Isis Face and the fourth of the Slovak Direct, linked more than 16, vertical feet of difficult terrain over eight days—an enchainment so impressive that some have called it one of the greatest feats in Alaska climbing history.

There are few peaks as prominent in the Himalaya as Tawoche m , which hugs the standard trekking route through the Khumbu Himal to Everest Base Camp. The climb took three days, requiring two bivouacs without a tent.