Tatsuo

I'm an IFMGA certified mountain guide, based in Saitama, in the vicinity of Tokyo.

At around the age of 12, I was captured by charms of the mountains as I started hiking with my friends in Japan. My main passion changed from hiking, to rock climbing, to winter mountains, to climbing abroad, but I was never let go by the mountain charms since then..

I've been guiding since 1995 and have also been trained at ENSA, the French mountaineering school in Chamonix.
As a climber, I've opened numerous new free climbing and multi pitch routes and accomplished a lot of first ascents all over Japan.
My experience extends abroad as well, having climbed the classic big wall rock climbing routes on El Capitan (Yosemite), Marmolada / Cime Grande (Dolomites), Lotus flower Tower (Canada), Trango Towers (Karakoram), and Fitz Roy (Patagonia), and in alpine climbing, the famous north faces of the Alps (Eiger, Matterhorn, Drus), as well as ice falls and high altitude mountains (Aconcagua, Amadablam, K2).

Guiding is not something anyone can do.
A mountain guide needs to be an advanced climber. But being a good mountain guide requires completely different set of skills including rope works and it's not enough to just be an expert climber. As a mountain guide, I aspire to continuously learn new techniques and develop myself as a guide, so as to guide clients safely and surely.
Finally, it is not enough to just have the right skills and knowledge to be a good mountain guide. One must understand the needs of each client and try his / her best to ensure clients' mountain experience is enjoyable and memorable and /or that the clients have learnt the techniques to become a better climber / mountaineer. This is my motto.

Lastly, please note that I don't speak English fluently so I will be communicating to you in mixture of English and gestures (or Japanese, if you can understand!).

I hope you get to enjoy the mountains in Japan or elsewhere with me!