Naomi Uemura

Naomi Uemura (植村 直己, Uemura Naomi^?, February 12, 1941 – c. February 13, 1984) was a Japanese adventurer. He was particularly well known for doing alone what had previously been achieved only with large teams. For example, he was the first man ever to reach the North Pole solo, the first man ever to raft the Amazon solo, and the first man ever to climb Denali solo. He disappeared while attempting to climb Denali in the winter.

Uemura was born in Hidaka, now part of Toyooka, Hyōgo, Japan. Shy by nature, he began climbing in college in the hope that mountaineering would increase his self-confidence.

Naomi Uemura was a licensed radio amateur operator, signed as JG1QFW. He used amateur radio communication during his expeditions.

While still in his 20s, Uemura had climbed solo Mount Kilimanjaro, Aconcagua, Mont Blanc and the Matterhorn, had walked the length of Japan and summited during the first (1970) Japanese expedition to climb Mount Everest and subsequent disastrous 1971 International Everest Expedition.

Uemura wrote that he almost gave up twice during his 1978 North Pole trip. On the fourth day of his trek, a polar bear invaded his camp, ate his supplies, and poked his nose against the sleeping bag where Uemura lay tense and motionless. When the bear returned the next day, Uemura was ready and shot him dead. On the 35th day of the trip, Uemura had hunkered down on an ice floe with his malamutes, when there was the roar of breaking ice and the floe cracked into pieces. He and his dogs were stranded on a tossing island of ice. After a night of terror, Uemura found a 3-foot-wide (0.91 m) ice bridge and raced to safety.

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