World Champion Rock Climber: Yuji Hirayama at TEDxTokyo

Yuji Hirayama is a bona fide rock star—the kind with grit on his hands, open air all around, and no net below. A competition climber who's scaled peaks in China, Italy, Kuala Lumpur, Switzerland and elsewhere, Yuji was World Cup champion in 2000. He's now revered as a granite crack climber and boulderer, able to analyze and exploit the tiniest seams. Because just climbing isn't adrenaline-charged enough, Yuji is also a speed climber. In 2008, he and ascent partner Hans Florine set a new record for ascending the Nose of El Capitan, blazing up the 1000-meter wall in 2:37:05, beating the previous record by two minutes and bettering their 2002 mark by a staggering five minutes. In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.* (*Subject to certain rules and regulations)