Salmon Ladder ~ Sasuke Ninja Warrior

The Salmon Ladder (サーモンラダー) is a Second Stage obstacle that was introduced into the course with the course redesign in SASUKE 18. Despite being in Stage 2, this obstacle requires tremendous upper-body strength. The competitor must grab a bar which is resting on two parallel walls. The walls have seven sets of notches for the bar to rest on, with gaps in between sets of rungs. The gap between the last two sets of rungs is larger than the previous ones. The bar is not bound to the wall in any way. Once the competitor's feet leave the mat, the landing mat from the Downhill Jump is taken away. The competitor must use his momentum or his upper-body strength to climb, raising the bar from notch to notch. After reaching the final notch, he must negotiate a final, smaller, gap, and land the bar onto two declining tracks in a "V" shape (called the Stick Slider). If the competitor uses his/her feet to touch the sides (as Nakamura Satoshi did in SASUKE 23) he is disqualified.

Salmon Ladder, SASUKE 18

SASUKE Competitions

Stage: Second Stage

First: SASUKE 18

Last: SASUKE 24

Total: 7 competitions

First Attempt: SASUKE 18, Nagasaki Takamasa

First Clear: SASUKE 18, Nagano Makoto

Prototype

Prior to the final version that was used in SASUKE 18, the Salmon Ladder had seven notch sets equidistant from each other. Therefore, there was no larger gap between the sixth and seventh notches, but this also made landing successfully on the Stick Slider significantly harder. This proved troublesome for the testers, as the TBS broadcast shows several of them failing the transition to the Stick Slider. This in turn as a result, had the seventh notch placed higher to make the transition to the Stick Slider easier, but it did have the downside of the introduction of the infamous large gap between the last two notches.

SASUKE 21 - 23 Version

After Okuyama Yoshiyuki's failure of the Stick Slider in SASUKE 20, the producers added small stoppers to the ends of the bar to prevent the bar from sliding off of the track again. While it made the Stick Slider easier, it arguably also made the Salmon Ladder more difficult. Levi Meeuwenberg (who beat the Salmon Ladder in SASUKE 20) failed there in SASUKE 21.

Salmon Ladder, SASUKE 21

SASUKE 24 Version

In SASUKE 24 the Stick Slider was removed and the Salmon Ladder was connected directly to the Unstable Bridge without a break point, therefore the competitors must make it only to the 7th rung before facing the next obstacle.