My name is Jon Glassberg and I own a production company called Louder Than Eleven. I make movies about climbing and adventure based out of Boulder, Colorado.

About two years ago I teamed up with outdoor clothing company Marmot and professional climber Paige Claassen to produce a world tour that would combine high end rock climbing in remote places of the world while simultaneously raising money for women and children in the countries we visited.

The project is called “Lead Now” and our goal is simple; spend one month in each country trying to climb the hardest routes we can find while working with non-profit organizations to develop marketing materials that they could use to fundraise for themselves and through our project.

The catch was that we wouldn’t be coming home between each month’s adventure and we would be traveling from one country to the next for nine months learning as we go.

Marmot’s Lead Now Tour – Stop 4 – Japan from Louder Than Eleven on Vimeo.

Stop #4: Japan

The Lead Now Tour brought us from the simple streets of Italy to the complex and visually stimulating hustle and bustle of Japan. We entered a world that we knew nothing about and nearly every experience was challenging and exciting in a way we never expected.

Our home for the month was located at the base of Mt. Fuji in Kofu City and we had high hopes of climbing new routes and exploring hidden valleys for boulders. For a month we battled the elements as typhoon after typhoon attacked Japan and rained us out over and over again. We had only a couple days of sunshine so we hooked up with locals and climbed out hearts out when weather permitted.

Japan offers a wild cultural experience and we fully immersed ourselves in the city lifestyle while escaping as often as we could into the lush mountains in search of dry rock and adventure.

Check out the video for the full story and look here for more videos and information about the Lead Now Tour, follow our Instagram (#leadnowtour), or visit our Facebook page.

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Editor: Renée Picard

Photo: Nyoman Sundra at Pixoto