Toshiyuki Yamada Speeds Up Himalayan Peak
The Rockies-based climber got within 10 minutes of the fastest known time up Ama Dablam
Toshiyuki Yamada, who is often based in the Canadian Rockies, nearly broke the speed record on Ama Dablam when he raced to the summit on Oct. 22. From base camp, it took him only five hours and 42 to reach the top of the 6,812-metre peak, and a total of nine hours and 32 minutes from base camp to base camp. He climbed via the southwest ridge, which gives 2,3000 metres of vertical gain over 15 kilometre.
Italian mountaineer Francois Cazzanelli got the fastest known time in 2021 in a dizzying five hours, 32 minutes and six seconds. His round-trip time was longer than Yamada’s because he helped with a rescue on the descent.
Yamada climbed unsupported and without supplemental oxygen, but took advantage of the fixed ropes. Yamada shared his GPS recording on his Instagram below.
This spring, Yamada and Takeshi Tani made the first ascent of the 900-metre northwest face of Kangchung Nup in Nepal. last winter, Yamada soloed the two-pitch WI6 test-piece Whiteman Falls. In April 2021, Yamada made a rare repeat of the Grand Central Couloir in the Rockies, read about it here. And the year before that, he established a new route in B.C. called Ichinen with Tani that goes at WI5+R M4, more here. And back in 2015, the two established a big mixed route on Storm Mountain.
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