48 year-old Dai Koyamada has made the first ascent of Okuro, 8C, at Mount Kasagi, Gifu, Japan.

Koyamada has more than thirty 8C boulders to his name, the vast majority of which have been first ascents. He has established a further three boulders at 8C+, as well as three sport climbing ascents at 9a. 

Koyamada wrote an extended report of the ascent on Instagram, which we've included a rough translation of below, slightly edited for clarity.

'A miracle happened! Yesterday, I completed a project that I had been trying for two seasons. I'm very happy to have completed one of my goals for this year'.

'This problem involves a wall that overlaps at an angle of about 150 degrees, a lip, a gentle slope, and then a mantle. Although the line was very attractive at the time of discovery, we were unable to find a solution for the gentle slope, and the landing was poor. With these issues combined, it existed as a half-dream line'.

'Still, after going around a few times and thinking about moves, I came up with a move that seemed like it could be done. I decided to give it a try, so I spent two days preparing the landing, and started trying it out in May of last year'.

The moves that seemed blank on the first day of trying were solved, and it seemed like it would be completed surprisingly quickly, but it took a long time'.

'The crux move, to put it simply, is to use a sloper that is incredibly tilted outward, and a toe hook that you don't understand how it works, and then take a sweet edge that is poorly oriented'.

'In any case, it was a move that I didn't understand very well. I was able to do it, but I didn't understand why it was possible when I did it, or why it couldn't be done when I couldn't do it'.

'There were days when I couldn't do the movements I thought I could do at all. I couldn't do them every time in isolation before connecting them, and it took me a long time every time to reproduce the key moves'.

'In any case, it was a stressful move with low reproducibility. Even though my body was fresh on the day I was able to climb it, I still couldn't do the core moves, and it took several hours to recreate them, so I half-heartedly gave up, thinking that today would be no good. Still, I kept trying, hoping it would go even if it was just a fluke, and after trying so many times I finally completed the key move and was able to continue climbing'.

'It's difficult to do moves that have elements outside of my control, and I was always feeling stressed out. I was happy to be able to climb the mountain, but the joy of being freed from this rock was even greater. It was a very good challenge'.