First Japanese Ascent of The Wild Thing

The Wild Thing is one of the Rockies’ most classic alpine routes. First climbed in 1987, the most recent and first Japanese ascent was by Toshiyuki Yamada and Takeshi Tani.

During the third week of April, Yamada and Tani made what was likely the 12th ascent of the original line of The Wild Thing 1,300 m M7 WI5 on Mount Chephren. It took them 45 hours car to car.

“I’m so happy we climbed such a beautiful line and mountain,” said Yamada. “We are already planing our next mission. I don’t know if the conditions were good or not, but I needed to remove tons of snow on almost all of the pitches. It was more difficult than climbing.

“Tani lead the crux A3 sections. He couldn’t free it because of all the snow, he would sit on his protection and clean a path.” The two  are currently two of the Rockies most committed alpinists.