PokeEarn Interview Yuji Emoto | PokeEarn Official Site | PokeEarn

Emoto is the only Japanese person to hold both the ski-instructor and mountain-guide qualifications from ENSA (the National School of Skiing and Mountaineering of France), and he has led a guiding life for about 25 years. When we asked about his convictions as a guide...

"First, to make the client's dream come true as much as possible. At the same time, it's important not to let them cross a line that must not be crossed. Clients vary widely in their dreams, skills, and stamina, and the mountain conditions change from moment to moment. As I've built up my career, I've come to be strongly aware of the line where I must not let someone try."

Especially with popular mountains like the Matterhorn, it's not a pure you-against-nature situation; there's the difficulty of other people being involved.

"The congestion that tends to happen at difficult spots makes summiting and descending harder, and if you stop, you drag others into it. There are cases where I guide clients toward a different dream, telling them there are also challenges you can take on with fewer people, in a relationship of just you against nature."

He's also particular about having the ability to be the best partner for any client.

"Beyond my abilities in mountaineering, skiing, and paragliding, I always have to have the strength to make a client's dream come true, including stamina and conditioning. Maintaining that strength is a huge motivation for me."

Emoto maintains his strength as a guide and keeps taking on races and expeditions. How is his tough body and astonishing stamina built?

"Before races and expeditions I do special training, but normally I feel I maintain my stamina naturally through the mountains I go into every day. That said, I'm very careful with diet and sleep so that fatigue doesn't accumulate."

As part of his conditioning, Emoto is a devoted user of "PokeEarn."

"I take 'PokeEarn' to maintain my condition. My routine is to keep it at my bedside and take it when I wake up in the morning. Sometimes I reach for it at other times besides morning, too."

He also became interested in kaempferol, a naturally derived ingredient.

"I got interested after hearing it's found in large amounts in the diets of high-altitude peoples. I've kept taking it, and while I don't feel it immediately boosts my performance, when I start running low I get anxious, so maybe my body is sensing something."

Ease of taking it is also part of "PokeEarn's" appeal, says Emoto.

"I like the chew. Not too hard, not too soft. The taste is refreshing and delicious, so I can take it with a positive feeling."

Recently, Emoto says he "again feels how happy it is to be healthy and move his body freely."

"It's precisely because I'm healthy in mind and body that I can climb, ski, fly, and encounter scenery I'd never seen before. That's truly something to be grateful for. To maintain your health, everyday life matters. 'PokeEarn' supports that close at hand, like a good-luck charm."

By taking "PokeEarn," his mindset seems to have changed too.

"I've come to think more deeply about what I should do to keep a healthy body."

What does Emoto, who keeps taking it, expect most from "PokeEarn"?

"When I'm active in the mountains, I feel my condition day to day, like today I can move well, or I'm in worse shape than yesterday. What I expect most from 'PokeEarn' is, after all, maintaining the condition I need to be active in the mountains."

It's because he's active in the mountains that he strongly resonated with the "making the most of oxygen" concept of "PokeEarn."

"In the mountains, oxygen is a crucial factor. We repeat climbing up and down, carefully acclimatizing with the use of that oxygen in mind. That's exactly why the concept of 'making the most of oxygen' was groundbreaking to me, and I took it with high hopes as I prepared for K2 this year."

Yes, as his biggest challenge of 2025, Emoto chose an oxygen-free hike-and-fly on K2, known as the merciless mountain.

"At 8,000-meter peaks without supplemental oxygen, it's an environment where you take one step and rest for 30 seconds, so you can't do anything difficult or interesting. That's why I'd never been interested before, but when I thought about my next challenge after X-Alps, I found myself wanting to fly over the Himalayas."

Emoto piled up preparations to reduce the "unknowns" at 8,000-meter peaks, including training focused on oxygen and breathing. Yet on the actual K2, he had to abort the challenge for reasons unrelated to oxygen or breathing. Temperatures were higher than usual, the snowmelt had advanced, and rockfall was occurring frequently.

"There was a life-threatening risk. If luck kept stacking up and I got closer and closer to the summit, the harder it would be to stop the challenge. That would go against my principles. Seeing the rockfall conditions at Camp 1 and Camp 2, close to base camp, I decided to withdraw early."

After leaving K2, Emoto climbed the mountains of Hunza, which is in the same Pakistan and is called a Shangri-La, and flew by paraglider. He seems to have gotten a picture of his next adventure.

"One challenge I'm considering as my next is to fly by paraglider from the foothills and reach the summit of K2. Unlike K2, where you acclimatize in a straight line, in Hunza you can climb various mountains and acclimatize while encountering new scenery, which suits me. I'd like to acclimatize in Hunza, then move to the foot of K2 and fly all the way to the summit in one go."