His name is Masanori Tsuada and if you challenge him with a piece of off-road rock crawling that everyone says is impossible, he will conquer it.
It’s not common knowledge but Japan has a strong off-roading community thanks to small off-roaders like the Suzuki Jimny, Vitara, and the Daihatsu Terios. Occasionally, you’ll see a Jeep Wrangler, but even that off-roader is sometimes to big for the average Japanese off-road enthusiast. As such, Japan’s grown its own crop of awesome off-roaders like Masanori Tsuada. Earlier this week (Oct. 11, 2018) Japanese off-road enthusiast page Wani Media posted up a video from Tsuada’s latest off-road adventures and this time it’s in the United States at Trail Hero USA. Check out this amazing video below.
Trail Hero USA is a five-day event held in Southern Utah that runs this year from Oct 2-8, it looks like anyone with an off-road capable vehicle can show up and climb over 80 different trails in the time they’re there.
While most of the trails are open to amateurs, there’s a special four-stage competition dubbed “The Trail Breaker” that pits a handful of off-road buggies against each other in a no-holds-bar slugfest through Utah’s worst terrain.
This particular stage looks to be one of the most difficult with a near vertical climb to the top and is only for seasoned drivers with the right equipment.
Although the video is only less than a minute, from where he left off, this suggests there’s more to this stage than what the camera can see. With parts of the rock he’s climbing on already stained with black rubber, I can only assume a handful of other off-roaders have been there before him. Nevertheless, the feat off-road skill he’s displaying is almost otherworldly.
It’s truly a marvel of fabrication, engine work, and engineering to make a rock crawler as capable as Tsuda’s.
And if you’re wondering, Tsuada finished 5th out of 9 competitors, not bad for someone not a native to our shores whose probably never even seen Southern Utah until that weekend.
