Everest, Nepal (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
KATMANDU, Nepal — An 80-year-old Japanese mountaineer on Thursday became the oldest person to reach the top of Mount Everest — although his record may last only a few days. An 81-year-old Nepalese man, who held the previous record, plans his own ascent next week.
Yuichiro Miura, who also conquered the 29,035-foot peak when he was 70 and 75, reached the summit at 9:05 a.m. local time Thursday, according to a Nepalese mountaineering official and Miura’s Tokyo-based support team.
“
I made it! I never imagined I could make it to the top of Mount Everest at age 80. This is the world’s best feeling, although I’m totally exhausted. Even at 80, I can still do quite well.
”– Japan’s Yuichiro Miura, from summit of Mount Everest
Miura and his son Gota called them from the summit, prompting his daughter Emili to smile broadly and clap her hands in footage on public broadcaster NHK.
“I made it!” Miura said over the phone. “I never imagined I could make it to the top of Mount Everest at age 80. This is the world’s best feeling, although I’m totally exhausted. Even at 80, I can still do quite well.”
The climbers planned to stick around the summit for about half an hour, take photos and then start to descend, his office said.
Nepalese mountaineering official Gyanendra Shrestha, at Everest base camp, confirmed that Miura had reached the summit, making him the oldest person to do so.
The previous oldest was Nepal’s Min Bahadur Sherchan, who accomplished the feat at age 76 in 2008, just a day before Miura reached the top at age 75.
Sherchan, now 81, was preparing to scale the peak next week despite digestive problems he suffered several days ago. On Wednesday, Sherchan said by telephone from the base camp that he was in good health and “ready to take up the challenge.”
Sherchan’s team is also facing financial difficulties. It hasn’t received the financial help that the Nepal government announced it would provide it. Purna Chandra Bhattarai, chief of Nepal’s mountaineering department, said the aid proposal was still under consideration.
On his expedition’s website, Miura explained his attempt to scale Everest at such an advanced age: “It is to challenge (my) own ultimate limit. It is to honor the great Mother Nature.”
He said a successful climb would raise the bar for what is possible.
“And if the limit of age 80 is at the summit of Mount Everest, the highest place on earth, one can never be happier,” he said. Read the rest of this entry »
Caught on camera: one of the alleged attackers spoke to bystanders. Photo: ITV
