"Call me Yuchan"

Today, Yuichiro Miura, better known as “the Man Who Skied Down Everest”, is the oldest person to climb the world’s tallest mountain. At 80 years of age, he has accomplished a feat that is mind boggling to most of us. I have been privileged to call this remarkable athlete a friend for many years.  My personal congratulations have gone out to him.

In the 1980’s and 1990’s, my world was filled with the mountains. Interest in climbing was growing and expeditions to the Himalaya were plentiful.  I first met Miura-san on a quick helicopter ride from Snowbird ski resort to a somewhat remote peak nearby in the Wasatch Mountains. We were celebrating Dick Bass’s Seven Summits achievement as the first person to climb the highest mountain on each of the seven continents. Miura-san had been on several of the “Seven Summits” climbs and I had been promoting the adventure since Bass and Disney President Frank Wells came up with the idea a few years earlier.

Miura-san is a happy man.  Great smile. Lots of energy. He’s been an athlete and an exceptional skier all his life. His company, Miura Dolphins, is all about health, exercise and sports directed at children.  They golf, hike, surf and ski all over the world on special trips that the company organizes.

When I started the Mountain Summit event, bringing world-class climbers and adventurers together with mainstream media to talk about risk and challenge in the mountains, Miura-san was one of the first to say he wanted to be a part.  We started on Mt. Rainier, went on to Snowbird and, when Robert Redford found out, he asked us to come to Sundance.  We did and had a great event there with a full complement of adventurers from Reinhold Messner and Lou Whittaker to Lynn Hill and, you guessed it, Yuichiro Miura.

It was at Sundance that Miura-san first said to me that we should hold the event in Japan. We talked a lot about it and he offered the infrastructure of Miura Dolphins to help organize it.  The Tokyo Summit was the crowning glory.  It was broadcast on national television across Japan.  We went to Mt. Fuji, which I’m convinced that Miura-san still climbs for light exercise like we, in Seattle, do Mt. Si on the weekends.

He was a great mentor to me on Japanese culture and business practices.  I’m fascinated by them and got very involved during the year of advanced planning that we did for the Summit. And my chop sticks acumen improved immeasurably. The Japanese are so respectful and gentle in their treatment of each other.  Their business practices are such a relief from our fast-paced, winner-take-all approach. It’s frankly good for some westerners and frustrating to others.  I like it.

Nicknames are an interesting part of the culture there.  They are used very sparingly and you have to earn the right to call someone by their nickname.  Without permission, it’s definitely a no-no to call someone by anything but their given name.

I had known Miura-san for years before the Tokyo Summit.  I had gotten to know his children, especially Gota, a former Olympian who went to college in Utah, and his daughter Emili, a journalist and experienced businesswoman.  You immediately know they are his children.  They both exude his stature...as do all his children.

We had been in sessions at the Summit for a couple of days, drafting a declaration that was eventually read into the famous Earth Summit in Rio.  I had said “Miura-san” a hundred times during the discussions when a folded piece of notepaper was passed around the table to me.  In perfect block printing, it read “Call me Yuchan”.  I had arrived.  It was a special moment for me and one which I cherish today. Using that nickname felt like such an honor.

I wish my friend Yuchan a continuation of his long life, relish his growing number of accomplishments and hope that all the dreams still in his head come true.  He is someone I greatly admire and respect. My life is better for knowing him.