Japanese mountaineer Hirotaka Takeuchi felicitated

Kathmandu: The first Japanese to climb all the peaks above 8000-meter Hirotaka Takeuchi was felicitated by Nepal Mountaineering Association amidst a ceremony here.Takeuchi is the first Japanese climber to conquer all of the 14 highest mountain peaks on the planet.

“My dreams come true in Nepal after ascending 8167 – meter Dhaulagiri on 26 May 2012. Although 14 peaks challenge has completed now, it is just beginning for me. Nepal is a special place, where I have 20 years of mountaineering scaling different Himalayas in this beautiful country,”Takeuchi said.
On the occasion,Dr.Ganesh Raj Joshi,Secretary at Ministry of Culture ,Tourism and Civil Aviation presented letter of appreciation to the renowned climber Takeuchi.

Ambassador of Japan to Nepal Kunio Takahashi,NMA President Zimba Zangbu Sherpa,General Secretary Deebas Bikram Shah, Executive board members of NMA, President of Himalayan Rescue Association Santa Subba and officials of Nepal Tourism Board felicitated professional alpinist Takeuchi .

President of NMA Zimba Zangbu Sherpa said,’ Ever since the first successful ascent of Manaslu by the Japanese team on 9 May 1956, there have been great achievements made in the field of mountaineering both in Japan and Nepal.NMA has close relations with Japan Mountaineering Association, Japanese Alpine Club, Japan Workers’ Alpine Federation, Nagano Mountaineering Association and Himalayan Adventure Trust of Japan.’

“NMA feels that young mountaineers in Japan and rest of world will always respect Takeuchi’s path and follow his dedication in mountaineering”, Sherpa opined.

The 41-year-old climber from Setagaya of Tokyo ascended the summit of the 8,167-meter Dhaulagiri I in Nepal, the seventh highest mountain in the world recently.

His first conquest of the 14 peaks began in 1995, when he reached the summit of the 8,463-meter Makalu in Nepal, the fifth highest mountain in the world.
While climbing the 8,035-meter mountain Gasherbrum II in 2007, he miraculously survived in an avalanche.

Reinhold Messner, an Italian mountaineer, became the first alpinist to ascend all the peaks above 8,000 meters–14 in the world–in 1986. Since then, nearly 30 climbers have succeeded in doing so.

Four Japanese mountaineers have conquered nine of them. Noboru Yamada, Hideji Nazuka, and Osamu Tanabe all died in mountain-climbing accidents after scaling nine of the highest peaks.