https://number.bunshun.jp/articles/-/846827 Translated by Google Translate
Masatoshi Kuriaki (48), the youngest mountaineer in history to climb Denali (6190m, Alaska, USA) in winter, has announced his de facto “retirement.” I can’t forget the words of Ken Kawarabata, a junior of the mountainous era of Kyushu Institute of Technology. “Marriage and the birth of a child are two big chances to leave the mountain, but Mr. Kuriaki ended up going (to the mountain).” Even if the top climbers die, they head to the mountains again as if nothing had happened. When they leave the mountain. Isn’t that the time when he lost his life? I sometimes feel such an ominous feeling. Kuriaki was the same. However, Kuriaki is, of course, still alive. Why did he decide to leave the mountain? The trigger was the first distress in my life in 2016.
“When you ask for help, when you leave the mountain”
–In April 2016, Mr. Kuriaki was rescued after being distressed in a mountain called Hunter in Denali National Park and Preserve, Alaska. It’s in the mountains of Alaska, so it’s still quite snowy. Will it be the first distress?
Kuriaki Actually, the exact point is that he requested rescue to avoid the distress. The danger of an avalanche increased, and in the end I decided not to move. So I have never been severely frostbite or debilitated. My body was fine. Still, I think it probably falls into the category of “weather distress.”
――I remember that Mr. Kuriaki used to say something like, “When you ask for help, when you quit the mountain.”
Kuriaki I had that kind of feeling. Was it also a commandment to myself that I should not call for help easily? In the first place, Denali National Park (about 24,400 square kilometers) has an area even larger than Shikoku. Because you go in there alone. Alaska in winter is not a place to enter in hopes of rescue.
――Mr. Kuriaki climbed the mountain of Alaska for the first time in 1995, and has been going to Alaska in winter for more than 20 years. Denali (6190m), Foraker (5304m), and Hunter (4442m), called Alaska Miyama, were aiming to climb alone in winter, but the remaining one was Hunter. Denali cleared it for the second time and Foraker for the fourth time. Foraker was supposed to be the world’s first feat in winter alone, and the world’s first feat if a hunter was also achieved. How many times did the hunter try?
Kuriaki 2016 was the 9th time. I started climbing on January 21st, and on March 23rd, the 63rd day of climbing, I gave up climbing at the 3230m point. I started descending from there, but on the 24th the next day, it snowed unseasonably. I think there was more than 120 cm of snow. As a result, I was forced to stagnate at Camp 2 (2620m), which has little food and fuel. Food was for 7 days and fuel was for about 12 days.
Did you hesitate when pressing the button?
――SOS is transmitted by a transmitter called a spot that informs you of location information.
Kuriaki Spot is a product name. In the United States, many people carry it with them when they are outdoors or hunting. There are two buttons, “help” button and “911” button, and “help” is a button that you can use as if you are okay with your friends. “911” is 110 in Japan. I pushed towards “911”.
-Did you hesitate when you press the button?
From the 25th of Kuriaki , I couldn’t move at all due to bad weather, so I decided to push it tomorrow morning on the night of the 31st, the 7th day of the stagnation. I was running out of food. There was a conflict until I decided, but when I pressed it, I was able to press it. It was a choice between taking a life and taking a good look. However, when I pressed it, I thought it was over … You may lose your qualification to climb the mountain. I pushed it with that much preparedness.
“Missing or falling into a crevasse”
–Mr. Kuriaki, in the postscript of the book “Mountain Traveler” published in October last year, the priority of mountain climbing is “(1) Survival” “(2) Enjoy” “( 3) If you are lucky, you will reach the summit. ” You followed that.
Kuriaki If I was working in that situation, I think I would have been hit by an avalanche in the end. If it had been washed away, it would have gone missing or had fallen into a crevasse.
-Did the rescue come soon?
Kuriaki Alaska Air National Guard rescue plane arrived before 11:00, pushing the spot around 7:00 am on April 1st. Since it was a blizzard, I couldn’t see the aircraft, but I was able to communicate with the aviation radio I was carrying. So I told him about my physical condition, the amount of food and fuel left, and so on. After that, he flew four times in total, at 12:00, 13:00, and 14:00, and managed to confirm the position of Camp 2 through the clouds and know the exact latitude and longitude. .. I was told that the rescue operation would start tomorrow or later due to poor visibility, but the weather was bad the next day and I was picked up on April 3rd.
――Did you feel upset and couldn’t understand English well?
Kuriaki I thought it was true. In simple English, he speaks slowly so that there are no mistakes. He spoke in a very calm voice, so I was very relieved.
“I was no longer the hunter I was in love with.”
――How many people will be rescued?
Kuriaki At first, three people flew over Camp 2, and then they landed on a nearby glacier, where one person got off and hung the basket on the aircraft. After that, he said that they would come to the rescue this time. As the word says, he came back about 15 minutes later. Under a rope of about 30m, a 1m square, no, a little bigger, metal basket was hung. Is the height of the fence about 40 cm? The bottom of the rescue helicopter in Denali National Park is transparent so that you can see the bottom. So, I was flattening the front of the snow cave, but the basket came down there at Don Pisha. I got in there, attached the lifeline to the basket, sent an OK signal, and then climbed up fluffy and took me to the top of the glacier in no time.
――So you board the plane there. How did you feel when you were on the plane?
Kuriaki What was surprising was that the scenery of the hunter looked completely different. He was no longer the usual hunter he was in love with. Until now, before entering the mountain, I would go. There was a good sense of excitement. Even when I couldn’t reach the summit and came back, I felt like I was there this year or I’ll be back again while looking at the trace (trace of the route). But at that time, I was always trapped in the feeling of being peeled off the mountain. I also think I’ve done it. There is also the disappointment that he has left over 100 kg of equipment. There is also the apology that the rescue team has taken extra risk. Also, I was always wondering what would have happened if I stayed at Camp 3.
–Did Camp 3 (3100m), one above Camp 2, have more food and fuel?
Kuriaki There were about 10 days of food and 16 days of fuel. However, avalanches frequently occur around Camp 3. Also, the ceiling of the snow cave was extremely thin. At first, it was about 1m thick, but it was being scraped off because of the great wind, and the light could be seen through. Next time, I thought that the roof would disappear if a strong wind blew, so I decided to get off early anyway.
――If you chose to stagnate at Camp 3, could you have been able to descend on your own?
Kuriaki As a result, if it was Camp 3, I might have waited until the weather recovered. If the ceiling disappears, it will take some time, but you can dig a snow cave again. However, the avalanche was so severe that even after the weather had recovered, the theory would have had to wait for about two days. Still, I feel like I was involved in an avalanche.
――By the way, is there a cost for rescue?
Kuriaki does not take. Rescue in a national park is basically not required. I knew it in advance. All the rangers were familiar with it, and I was glad that I was able to warm up before the full-scale mountaineering season in spring and summer. But, of course, I was sorry.
――Until now, you’ve been trying endlessly “reckless” attempts to climb Alaska’s three mountains alone in winter, and it would have been strange if this hadn’t happened.
Kuriaki Every time I went to the descent report, I was surprised by the rescue team members. For a couple of months, I went into the winter mountains of Alaska and came back like a normal traveler. “Did Masa (Masatoshi Kuriaki) really enter the mountain?”
https://number.bunshun.jp/articles/-/846828 Translated by Google Translate
Masatoshi Kuriaki (48), the youngest mountaineer in history to climb Denali (6190m, Alaska, USA) in winter, has announced his de facto “retirement.” The decision to quit the mountain was the first distress in my life in 2016. Climbing Alaska in winter, which I translated as “a ridiculous thing” -why did Kuriaki bother to aim for “such a place” in the first place?
――When you continued to go to Alaska, you were in the mountains of Alaska by this time.
Kuriaki That’s right. During the winter, I was in the mountains for a couple of months. The longest was when I was climbing a hunter in 2010, and I had been climbing for 83 days.
In 2007, it was in the middle of the Foraker summit attack (4470m point). Wolf fur sewn on the hood prevents frostbite on the face
A photo taken by Kuriaki himself in the middle of the attack on the top of Foraker (4470m point) in 2007. Wolf fur sewn on the hood prevents frostbite on the face © Masatoshi Kuriaki
――Climbing methods can be broadly divided into “alpine style,” “capsule style,” and “polar method.” Roughly speaking, the “Alpine style” is a method of climbing with light equipment in a short time, and the opposite “Polar method” is to unload a large amount of luggage in several times and gradually increase the altitude over time. It’s a way to earn money. Old Japanese mountaineering teams often used this method. The “capsule style” is a method that lies in the middle, and although it is not as light as the “alpine style”, it is not as large as the “polar method”. In recent years, the alpine style has become the mainstream due to the high success rate, but Mr. Kuriaki has rather followed the classic capsule style.
Kuriaki winter of Alaska Range weather will change as cat’s eye. In the vicinity of the summit, the weather will be mild for a few days to a week in total. Therefore, stagnation is a daily occurrence. It’s difficult to do it all at once in a short number of days. Alpine style can be fatal if the weather suddenly changes and you are forced to bibark while climbing. The success or failure of my mountaineering depends more on camping skills than on mountaineering skills. The more severe the environment and the longer the stagnation, the more important it is how to survive the cold and how to eat. That is a big difference from the general image of mountain climbing. Move only when it’s good, and wait if it doesn’t work. If there is even one negative factor, I will take a rest that day. So when asked what they’re going to do, it feels like they’re waiting. Waiting is my job.
“Just make hot water for 4 or 5 hours a day”
――I have talked with various mountaineers about “Alaska’s three mountains in winter alone” that Mr. Kuriaki aimed for. The reaction is generally fixed. It’s amazing. However, I’m sorry to say that I can’t do it unless I’m a weirdo.
Kuriaki I’m just waiting for you. It’s often said that I have good judgment, but I don’t need judgment in the mountains of Alaska. It’s just important to kill yourself, sharpen your senses, and feel the signs of nature. That way, nature in Alaska will tell you if you want to let us play today or if you should wait. If you want to climb there quickly or if your desire comes in, you may miss the sign of nature.
――Also, everyone often says this too. It doesn’t seem to be fun. Basically, more than half of them are stagnant in the snow cave. What are you doing?
It is a snow cave of Camp 3 (3100m).
Kuriaki When you say what you’re doing, it’s like making a meal. I spend 6 to 7 hours to make water and food. I think it takes 4 to 5 hours a day just to make hot water. Since the oxygen concentration is low in high places, the power of the stove is halved. So it takes just two hours to melt the snow and make three or four liters of drinking water. It is also important to iron with a vinyl pack containing hot water so that ice does not form in the sleeping bag. It’s small, but there’s a lot to do. Also, believe it or not, I don’t think there is any other environment where you can sleep so well. It’s really quiet. The ultimate silent world. If the weather is bad, I’ll be fine and sleep for about 12 hours.
――Actually, in the winter of 2011, I also landed on the Kahiltona Glacier, where I set up a base camp with Mr. Kuriaki. It was about -20 degrees, but he said “it’s warm” … There was no smell of life there.
Kuriaki Sometimes ravens come flying for my food. However, there are days when the scale of the -40 degree thermometer runs out. In such a case, the raven does not even show up.
Is it “ridiculous” or “suicide”?
–The Japanese translation of the guidebook “Climbing in the Denali National Park and Preservation Area” distributed at the Ranger Station states about winter climbing in the park. <It’s ridiculous rather than a challenge to the mountains because it involves tremendous danger. Some of the world’s mountaineers have gone missing or have died in literal flash freezing! Due to the effects of the jet stream that intensifies in winter, winds exceeding 160 km / h (100 mph) blow down from the upper part of the side wall of the mountain. This was actually translated by Mr. Kuriaki.
Kuriaki Yes. The translation of “stupid thing” is the part that was originally expressed as “ridiculous” in English. At first I thought it would be translated as a suicidal act. It’s not “suicide”, but I wonder if it’s “target”. That way you can convey the original meaning. Therefore, when I entered the mountain, I always felt like “Please be kind to me.” The other party is too big. In the first place, it is a good story of insects to let them climb in winter.
――It’s a simple question, but why bother to go to such a place?
Kuriaki Climbing in me is to make my own way under the conditions that have been going on since ancient times. I don’t dare to seek difficult situations, but I think that is the essence of mountaineering. The altitude is not always proportional to the difficulty of climbing. Forakers and hunters, which are lower in altitude than Denali, have a steeper slope. Also, the higher the altitude, the harder the snow is because it is exposed to the wind. The spikes of ice ax and crampons are also good, and you can walk steadily. When I went there, the hunters were steep and the snow was unstable. Watching the gritty snow makes you feel like you’re climbing in ant hell. It’s like swimming in the rough snow that is about the waist. Sometimes you can swim, swim, and only go about 100 meters a day. What’s more, after about 8 round trips, I finally made a route, and when I thought it was going to be unloaded from tomorrow, the weather got worse and the road disappeared. The hunters who couldn’t reach the summit were Russell, disappearance, Russell, and disappearance.
――This is also often said by everyone. Masatoshi Kuriaki is not the number one, but he is completely the only one.
If there are 100 Kuriaki, there are 100 alpinisms. That’s fine. I fell in love with Alaska. It’s also in winter mountains.
https://number.bunshun.jp/articles/-/846829 Translated by Google Translate
Masatoshi Kuriaki (48), the youngest mountaineer in history to climb Denali (6190m, Alaska, USA) in winter, has announced his de facto “retirement.” The decision to quit the mountain was the first distress in my life in 2016. Winter Alaska has been in love for a long time. Kuriaki says, “Is it okay to climb a mountain that kills my life?” How do you spend your “Alaska-free” days? (3rd time of all 3 times / to # 1 and # 2 )
――Did you experience the first rescue in your life in 2016 and thought that you wouldn’t go anyway in 2017?
Kuriaki I pressed SOS, so it’s not “yes, it’s over”, but I thought it might be over. In the first place, I wasn’t recovering. I wondered if it was such a miserable thing to be rescued and come back. People around me say “I’m glad I’m fine”, but it’s not a mountain climbing to be torn off from the mountain (by rescue). So, on the other hand, I also wanted to go back again. He still wants to cling to the mountains. However, in terms of organizing my mind, I thought I would stay still for a year or two. Also, I was thinking only about the luggage left in the mountains.
――It seems that another climber gave you those luggage after that.
A team of mountaineers named Kuriaki Lonnie Dupre took down the equipment of about 50 kg in early May of that year. However, he said that he left the rope stretched directly under Camp 3. I used to stretch 60m x 4 ropes and 240m ropes. Then Lonnie was challenging the hunter for three years in a row from the winter of 2017. Is that so?
――Such a “eccentric” is again … But finally, a successor who took over Masatoshi Kuriaki’s will and challenged the winter hunter appeared.
Kuriaki It seems that two or three people took on the challenge in the spring of 2020. But now, I’m in the mood to do it. However, Lonnie will be 60 this year. I think it’s amazing just to challenge.
“A coincidence” of 43 years old, the same as Naomi Uemura and Michio Hoshino
――Mr. Kuriaki is now 48 years old. Do you still feel that your physical strength is weakening?
Kuriaki I feel it for the last few years. Recently, it has become easier to see things that are close to me when I take off my glasses, and I’m sorry to say that I’m sorry for the story, but my urine is getting worse … What is Lonnie doing? Winter mountains in Alaska can easily reach around 30 and 40 degrees below zero. During the action, I take a lot of water, so I want to add more immediately. However, it is not an exaggeration to say that you cannot use it quickly in the cold weather, but it can be fatal. That’s where I was most concerned about aging.
–Naomi Uemura, an adventurer and Michio Hoshino, a photographer who had a close relationship with Alaska, died at the age of 43. And this time, Mr. Kuriaki also experienced the first distress in his life at the age of 43. It’s a coincidence that makes me a little scared by chance.
In terms of Kuriakimountaineers, Tsuneo Hasegawa (the world’s first climber of the three major north walls of the Alps in winter) and Kei Taniguchi, a female mountaineer who caught the Piolet d’Or, also died at the age of 43. Also, Ehime adventurer Hyōichi Kono died at the age of 43.
Eldest daughter “Dad, dead!”
――In a person’s life, the age around that may be the year when something changes, both physically and mentally
Kuriaki immediately came back, eldest daughter of Aoiko (at that time, elementary school third grade) I was told “I die When you say next” to. I was surprised at that too. Aoko once told her mother, “Dad, I’m dead!” At home when I died of carbon monoxide poisoning in the snow cave. When I heard that story later, it was the same time as I fainted, so I was surprised.
――If so, it may be that there was something you felt rather than simply saying that because you didn’t want your father to go.
Kuriaki No, I was always told by my daughter. “If my dad is away for a long time, my mom will be scared, so I’m in trouble.” My wife is a university teacher and I do most of the house work. Children will tell me when they are hungry. Ogiri, make yakisoba.
――When Mr. Kuriaki disappears, your wife will have to do all the house work while working.
Kuriaki It’s so it seems that it was a serious problem for my daughters. That’s why I was always told not to go. I’m ruining the good story.
“When I play the piano, my feelings fly to Alaska.”
――You showed off your piano skills earlier, but how good are you? To be honest, I was surprised.
Kuriaki I started playing the piano when I was 3 years old and have been playing it for 8 years. But I haven’t done it at all from there. But now I sometimes play all day long. You filled the time when you couldn’t go to the mountains. There is a difficult song called Chopin’s “Revolutionary Etude”, but I can play it after practicing, maybe because my brain is growing. There’s been a blank for over 30 years, so it’s not a song to play. But when I play it, my feelings fly to Alaska. This is when the blizzard is blowing, or when it’s a fleeting sunny day during the blizzard. For the first time, I realized that the mountain experience lives in a different place.
“Is it okay to climb a mountain that kills my life?”
――Are you still climbing?
It’s about climbing Mt. Crescent in the neighborhood of Kuriaki (a low mountain with an altitude of 272m that straddles two cities and towns, Fukuoka City and Hisayama Town, Fukuoka Prefecture) with your family.
――I’m not going to climb a large scale anymore.
Kuriaki I don’t think it’s a life-threatening thing. Now that I’ve been able to make the most of it, I wonder if it’s okay to climb a mountain that will kill my life. The corona epidemic has been ruined. In 2020, climbing Denali was canceled. What will happen this year? I wasn’t thinking of going without Corona, but next year, when Corona is over, I’m 49 years old. Because aging will progress further. I wonder if this is something to tell.
–Have you ever considered taking this opportunity to get a job?
Kuriaki With the hope of my wife, a university professor who spends her days working overtime, I think it’s okay to remain a stay-at-home husband for the time being. Thankfully, I sometimes receive requests for lectures and writing, so I would like to carry out activities to convey my experience to others, albeit in small detail. However, I don’t want to say something like, everyone should try climbing. I hope someday, somewhere, I’ll remember that someone was saying something like that.
――Even so, it’s a nice house. Made of natural materials. It’s a space where children will be overjoyed.
Kuriaki I moved in 2014. When I was rescued for the first time in 2016 and came back, the greenery in the garden looked different. I was also looking at the greenery of Alaska in early spring, but the small greenery of my house became more familiar. It was actually a high school classmate who designed this place, but when he said, “It’s a very cozy house, so Kuri (Kuriaki) doesn’t want to go to the harsh nature of Alaska. I’m worried about it, “he said. That’s right. Immersing yourself in the coziness of this house makes it hard to believe that you’re going to the mountains of Alaska in the midwinter. I used to go to that place. As a person, I think it’s strange. It’s a joke, but as I watched the children grow up in this house, I thought the mountains were good.