Ultimate Cliffhanger

The fifth version of the Cliffhanger came after Urushihara's completion of the course in SASUKE 24. It has been renamed once again, this time to the Ultimate Cliffhanger (アルティメットクリフハンガー) to emphasize its redesign. It is by far the largest and longest Cliffhanger to date, with a total of six ledges, double of any previous version. The obstacle first consists of two ledges. The first is 2m and on a 24° angle and requires competitors to climb right, with a gap of 20 cm, the next is also 2m and is on a 12° angle, requiring competitors to climb left. After that there is a 60 cm upwards vertical gap to the third ledge which is 3.2m long. Competitors must then cross a 90 cm horizontal gap to another 1.2m ledge. At the end of that, they must jump and catch themselves on a small 15 cm ledge. From there, they must swing to the final 2m ledge and traverse that to complete the obstacle.

In its first tournament, SASUKE 25, the obstacle proved to be unbelievably difficult. All four competitors who attempted it failed before any could even touch the third ledge. In SASUKE 26 the third ledge was lowered to make the transition from the angled ledges easier but this resulted in making the transition to the fourth ledge much harder. To compensate for what would have been a 1.2 meter gap between the third and fourth ledges, the third ledge was also lengthened slightly to make it a gap more similar to the gap between the second and third ledges of the second cliffhanger. Also a large sheet of metal was placed at the base of the obstacle in order to hide the metal supports that were visible in SASUKE 25. Li En Zhi and Okuyama Yoshiyuki, in their second attempts, made it to the end of the fourth ledge but failed while building momentum to swing to the small fifth ledge.

In SASUKE 27, the obstacle was moved from its previous position as the fourth obstacle to the third obstacle. As a result, it was finally conquered by Hashimoto Koji in his second attempt and also completed by eventual Finalist Matachi Ryo and eventual two-time champion Urushihara Yuuji, both their first attempts of the obstacle. The obstacle was nearly cleared by David Campbell as well but his grip gave way on the final ledge, moments before he could reach the other side.


The Ultimate Cliffhanger, SASUKE 25


G4 Name: Ultimate Cliff Hanger
SASUKE Competitions
Stage: Third Stage
First: SASUKE 25
Last: SASUKE 27
Total: 3 competitions
First Attempt: SASUKE 25, Takahashi Kenji
First Clear: SASUKE 27, Hashimoto Kouji


The Ultimate Cliffhanger, SASUKE 26 with the lowered third ledge





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