Japanese climber, 80, becomes oldest atop Everest

Japanese adventurer Yuichiro Miura (R) poses with his son Gota Miura (L) in March before he set of to climb Mount Everest for the third time and become the oldest person to scale the world’s highest peak. (Getty Images)

Kathmandu, May 23 (IANS): Eighty year-old Japanese Yuichiro Miura Thursday became the world’s oldest person to reach the summit of Mount Everest.

“He climbed the world’s highest mountain at 9.15 a.m. this morning securing a new title,” said Gyanendra Shrestha, an official at mountaineering department of Nepal’s ministry of tourism and civil aviation.

The Japanese octogenarian claimed the title previously held by Nepali Min Bahadur Sherchan as the oldest to climb the mountain in November 2009, reported Xinhua.

Earlier, Sherchan had replaced Miura in the Guinness World Records. Miura first climbed the peak in 2003 at the age of 70. He did it again in May 2008 when he was 75, but failed to set a record as he reached the summit a day after Sherchan achieved the same feat at age 76.

After Miura announced he would climb the Everest, Sherchan, who is now 82-years-old, also intends to do so in the current climbing season.

“Sherchan is still in the Mt. Everest base camp is and preparing to climb,” Shrestha told Xinhua.