Everest's CRAZIEST Climber - He Took Deadly SW FACE Route Missing 9 Fingers!?!? (栗城 史多)

One of the biggest challenges for any climber who takes on a mountain like Everest is to maintain an extremely large amount of confidence and determination needed to make it to the top, while also not being overconfident or too determined, which can get you killed. There have been far too many instances of climbers who would not or could not quit even after the mountain had made it abundantly clear that continuing would result in almost certain death. However, there has possibly never been a climber more determined – or some might say more reckless – than Japanese climber, Nobukazu Kuriki, who’s decisions went from overly ambitious to downright suicidal over a period of time in which he attempted to climb Mt. Everest eight times. Kuriki was born on June 9th, 1982 in Hokkaido, Japan. After graduating High School, he had no particular dreams or goals. He spent a year basically doing nothing, what is known as a NEET life – not in education, employment or training, until he decided to attend Sapporo International University.

It was during his time at the university when Kuriki was invited to join a mountaineering club. At first, he didn’t even like it, but eventually grew to love the challenge and with each mountain he climbed, his yearning to travel to other countries and climb higher mountains grew. He wanted to climb some of the tallest mountains around the world, but his peers in Japan told him that such things were impossible – that he did not have the experience or skills. So, in June of 2004, his third year at the university, he set out to prove to not just his peers, but to himself, that he could do it, and left for Alaska, where he climbed Mt. McKinley, officially known as Denali, North America’s tallest peak at over 20,000 feet, all by himself at just 22 years old. About 7 months later, he took on Aconcagua, South America’s tallest peak and the highest in the Americas. Within a few years, he had climbed 6 of the 7 summits – referring to the tallest mountain on each of the 7 continents - and had already summited some of largest mountains in the Himalayas, such as Cho Oyu, at 26,864 feet, which he climbed in 2007 by himself and without supplemental oxygen.

It was around 2008 when Kuriki decided to start streaming his mountain climbing career with a website and vlog called Sharing Adventures. It was meant to share not only his successes but also his failures and setbacks. He streamed his climb of Dhaulagiri, the 7th tallest mountain in the world, that year. Then, in September of 2009, he made his first attempt at climbing Mount Everest, the tallest mountain in the world at 29,032 feet. He attempted to climb alone from the Chinese north side of the mountain without oxygen. There were, however, Sherpas who climbed near him, he claimed in order just to take photographs, but otherwise did not support Kikuri in his climb. Whatever the case, he climbed to an altitude of 26,000 feet during this attempt but turned back after having issues streaming.

In 2010, he attempted to climb the extremely difficult Annapurna, which at that time had a fatality rate of about 32%. He survived, but had to turn back 400 meters from the summit due to frostbite and a deteriorating physical condition. Again, there were technical difficulties streaming his climb. In September of 2010, Kuriki made his second attempt on Mt. Everest, this time from Nepal on the south side. Harsh weather prevented proper acclimatization and he had to turn back at about 25,400 feet as winter approached. A third attempt was made in October of 2011 again from the south side of the mountain, but again turned back around 25,000 feet. Then, in 2012, during at attempt to climb another 8000 meter mountain called Shishapangma, Kuriki was nearly killed during a horrific fall on the southwest face of the mountain. He miraculously survived.

Kikiru would not be deterred despite these failures and made a fourth attempt at Everest in October of 2012. He kept his followers up to date on every detail of his attempt, from his arrival at base camp to his acclimatization climbs all the way up until the final attempt was to take place. He arrived at Camp 3 on October 13th and recorded this video, documenting his progress. On October 15th, he climbed to Camp 4 to prepare for the final assault on the summit, which began on October 17th. He climbed for over 10 hours when a violent windstorm hit, forcing him to began a descent. Kikiru could not make it back to camp before dark and was forced to bivouac in a snow hole with temperatures dropping to 20 below zero. He barely made it off the island with his life but had severe frostbite and ended up losing 9 of his 10 fingers.

It seemed that Everest had spoken and Kikuru’s mountaineering career – at least regarding 8000 meter mountains – had come to end. That would have been a much better ending. Instead, despite the fact that he wasn’t able to fully use an ice axe, Kikuri would not be denied and tried again in 2015, when an avalanche hit base camp, killing at least 22 people. Afterwards, he attempted to climb the mountain anyway, the only mountaineer to do so, creating controversy amid the climbing community. Many believed it to be an ill-planned attention grab. One reporter called him “crazy,” saying the only reason he was allowed to try was because Nepal wanted to make sure people came back to climb the mountain again after the avalanche. Kikuru had to turn back before reaching the summit due to the harsh weather.

He was back again in 2016, but weather conditions again forced him to turn back. Undeterred, he returned in 2017 to attempt a spring Everest climb for the first time. He made several attempts at the summit, feeling worse each time and turning back each time. The weather also did not cooperate and eventually the 2017 attempt ended in failure once again.

Between climbs, Kikuri gave lectures across Japan on the value of perseverance. He was certainly qualified in the area of persistence and returned again for an eight attempt at Everest in the Spring of 2018. However, he would this time attempt to climb the near impossible and incredibly dangerous Southwest Face. It hadn’t been done successfully until 1975 and even then took a fully planned military style expedition to pull it off. Only 30 had ever done it before and many had died trying. Only one person did it without bottled oxygen and he, along with every other member of his team, died on the way down. For some one who failed to reach the summit 7 times out of 7 to attempt this alone, without oxygen, and with just one finger was downright suicidal. Kikuri had the experience and skill to summit Mt. Everest if he took the more tradition approach of being a part of a team, using bottled oxygen and using an established and standard route. Instead, Kikuri was not lowering his standards due to the streak of failures, rather he was upping them – looking for more difficult routes and increasing his ambitions with each failed climb.

To add to how insane this attempt was, Kikuri was already experiencing a severe cough and fever at base camp. He went for it anyway, but did take a radio and communicated with his team below during the attempt. He became so ill that he had to turn back and informed the team. However, communications completely stopped before he made it back to camp. His team climbed the mountain to search for him and found his lifeless body. He had apparently slipped and fallen, experiencing severe trauma, leading to a quick death. Reports from Kuriki’s team stated that “Considering condition of his body, it can be assumed that he probably slipped 100 to 200 meters,“

There have been debates on whether he was really even trying to summit Everest by the eight attempt. One Japanese climber said “It seems to me that at some point, his goal was no longer about stepping foot on the summit but exposing himself to the toughest conditions imaginable and sharing that with people.” Of course, these conditions got him killed.

The story of Nobukazu Kuriki is tragic but fascinating in that it encompasses the experience of many Everest climbers, except over a much longer period of time. It is not uncommon for a climber to overestimate their abilities and continue to push on despite clear warnings that getting back alive won’t be in the cards if they continue. This usually lasts a few days, but in Kuriki’s case, the warnings lasted an entire decade. Yet he refused to acknowledge them and just pushed harder and harder, looking for more difficult and deadly ways to climb the mountain until finally, in 2018, tragedy struck. There is a possibility that he noticed the decline in interest in his expeditions as he failed to reach the summit year after year and thus decided to up the stakes for the 2018 attempt. If so, what would have done in 2019 had he survived the 2018 attempt? He was already attempting something that no one had ever done before, at least not without losing their life in the process.

Many will feel no pity for Kuriki as his actions were basically suicidal, and such actions do put others in danger when they have to come rescue you. However, I do believe that in the beginning of his climbing career, he wanted to spread positive messages as far as living out one’s dreams and having courage and perseverance, but later got caught up in his social media presence and attention from the media, leading him to keep going back to Everest year after year, becoming more and more insane with his methods, until the inevitable happened. I would say that I hope his experience is a lesson to other climbers not to be too reckless, but I’m not sure any climber – even the craziest out there – would ever think of attempting what he did, especially after losing 9 of 10 fingers. Let me know your thoughts on this young man was he a great example of persistence and willpower, or a man with an apparent death-wish who lacked any semblance of common sense and sound judgment? Regardless of the answer, Rest in peace Nobukazu Kuriki.