Ryuji Hayashibara

Ryuji san was a member of the Himalayan Club for several years. He had a deep interest in the Karakoram glaciers. Perhaps he was one of the rare persons who had traversed all the glaciers in the Karakorams, spread over many years. During his several visits to the Karakorams, Purian Sar climbed by him in 1975 and Sia Kangri in 1979. He crossed the Hispar glacier and Hispar pass in 1997, reached Karakoram Pass in 2002 and in his last visit to the Karakoram he traversed the Batura glacier and crossed Chillinji pass. He went to K2 twice and his team members climbed the summit in 1977.

His major achievement was the traverse of five glaciers in 1979 when a Japanese expedition led by him climbed Sia Kangri from the Conway Saddle, descended its south face to the Siachen glacier. They trekked out via the Bilafond la. This was one of the last crossing of West to East Karakorams before the fierce war took over since 1984.

But Ryuji san was not to be deterred in completing his exploration- visiting the eastern-most glaciers in the Karakoram, namely the Rimo glacier. In 2002 he joined with the Indian-Japanese expedition led by Hiroshi Sakai and myself to complete his full explorations. In a long traverse we covered the trail along the Shyok river and then traversed the Rimo glaciers to reach Col Italia.

Ryuji san and myself separated here from the main expedition team and went off to explore the 6000 m high Teram Shehr Plateau, the first persons ever to do so. It was surrounded by high mountains. Two of us spent five days alone on the plateau, reached several high cols. Those were great days and though Ryuji san did not speak much English we could perfectly share the beauty of mountains.

After few years when I visited Japan, he was kind enough to invite me to his home and introduce me to his wife. He lived in mountains and ran a small restaurant which was frequented by climbers and tourists. The first floor on his lovely house was always unlocked and open for any friends and climbers to come and stay anytime. We spent wonderful days walking in the woods. Ryuji san was a purist in a way – no television, laptop, internet or any modern gadgets for him. As I left Japan little did I realize that this is the last time we will be meeting. He passed away, rather suddenly, in 2012. I will miss a friend and purist.

Harish Kapadia