Three young Japanese alpinists, members of an increasingly famous clan who refer to themselves as the Giri-Giri Boys, have made three hard technical ascents in Alaska.
Kazuaki Amano, Ryo Masumoto and Takaai Nagato initially concentrated their efforts on the Ruth Gorge. Amano is a leading alpinist in his country and was awarded a Piolet d'Or in 2009 for his ascent of Kalanka North Face the previous year.
The original Giri-Giri boys joking gave themselves the name after a celebrity group called the Giri-Giri Girls. But Giri Giri means 'barely' in Japanese and perhaps best describes their minimalist approach to alpine climbing.
The first new route by Amano, Masumoto and Nagato was a two-day ascent of the 900m West Face of Pt 7400.
Who made the first ascent of this unnamed 7,400-foot summit immediately north of London is not clear but in 1989 Todd Bibler and Doug Klewin - authors of the famous Moonflower on the North Buttress of Hunter - climbed the 900m North West Face at 5.10-.
The new Japanese route starts to the right and climbs mixed ground, getting close to the 1989 route at middle height section but not joining it until the final, easier-angled slopes.
The Japanese trio took two days to climb 22 pitches to the summit, overcoming difficulties of M6 and 5.10- R, and naming their line Optimist.
They then moved south down the Gorge and over another two days climbed a fairly direct route up the North Face of Mt Church (2,509m).
Church is the most southerly major peak on the west side of the gorge, a magnificent pyramid that was first climbed in 1977 via the North West Ridge by Ruth Gorge pioneer Gary Bocarde, with Henke, Taniguchi and Wheaton. Although it is rumoured that this route may have been repeated, it is not confirmed that Church had a second ascent until 30 years later.
In 2007 three of the original Giri-Giri boys, Fumitaka Ichimura, Yusuke Sato and Tatsuro Yamada, climbed directly up the middle of the North Face via the prominent 1,100m central couloir to create Memorial Gate (AI 4 R/X).
They were followed in 2008 by Britons James Clapham and Gavin Pike, who started left of the Japanese line and climbed steep snow to the rock band in the middle of the face.
A gully of excellent ice and névé (80°) led to the fluted upper wall, where the British pair slanted left on tricky unconsolidated Alaskan snow to reach the East Ridge, which they followed, not without incident, to the summit. They named their line Amazing Grace (c1,100m: ED, 80°+) after Pike's niece, and descended the North West Ridge.
The new Japanese route climbs the Clapham-Pike gully to the upper face and then heads up and right on flutes to reach the ridge just left of the summit.
They climbed a total of 17 pitches with difficulties up to AI 4+ and M6 R, and are proposing to name the line after two other Giri-Giri boys, Yuto Inoue and Tatsuro Yamada, who disappeared high on Denali in 2008.
The three then moved to Denali, where they climbed the giant Denali Diamond on the South Face. This was the first free ascent of the 2,500m route, which took them 80 hours and featured a crux of M7/7+
Denali Diamond was climbed in 1983 in a 17-day epic. Rolf Graage hired a young guide, Bryan Becker, to climb the new route. They had limited gear, and as Graage forgot the climbing rope, they had to climb on a single 9mm haul line. The route waited two decades for a second ascent.
It has now been climbed several times including a five-day ascent in 2002 by Kenton Cool and Ian Parnell, who used two points of aid on the crux pitch - one for a tension traverse. This tension traverse had not been freed on subsequent ascents, though Parnell felt it might go at Scottish VIII, 8.
These three recent ascents confirm the growing number of highly talented, young Japanese climbers prepared to tackle difficult new routes in alpine style on the World's big ice and mixed faces.
The photo shows the North Face of Church. In Memoriam climbs the obvious central couloir direct to the summit. Amazing Grace climbs through the rock barrier to the left at the obvious steep break and then heads left up flutes to the skyline ridge. The new Japanese route heads up right above the barrier and climbs through a mixed headwall just left of the summit.
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