Yasushi Yamanoi

Yasushi Yamanoi is a Japanese mountaineer born in 1965 who is known for first ascents of new routes, often climbed solo, on big walls and alpine lines in the Greater Ranges. He made the first solo winter ascent of Fitz Roy in 1990, a new solo route on the southwest face of Cho Oyu in 1994, and in 2000 a fast solo ascent of the Cesen Route on K2 in 48 hours. In 2002 he and his wife, the mountaineer Taeko Nagao, were caught in an avalanche on Gyachung Kang and both lost fingers or toes to frostbite, an ordeal told in the book Frozen. He received the Asahi Sports Award in 2002 and the Piolet d'Or Lifetime Achievement Award in 2021.