Everest record old news for Japanese climber, 75

A 75-year-old Japanese climber reached the top of Mount Everest on Monday, a day too late to reclaim his record as the summit’s oldest conqueror. Elderly mountaineer Yuichiro Miura, who has undergone two bouts of heart surgery, congratulated Nepal’s Min Bahadur Sherchan, 76, who scaled the world’s highest peak on Sunday.

“Congratulations to the 76-year-old for his successful ascent!” Miura said in a statement issued Sunday from the C5 camp near the top of Everest. “As a fellow septuagenarian, I have also finally reached C5 after a challenging ascent. I will now try my best to reach the same summit, hopefully tomorrow,” he said.

His supporters later said Miura reached the 8,848-metre (29,028-feet) summit at 0148 GMT. They said he met Sherchan on May 16 at the Everest Base Camp and the two wished each other well. Miura was hoping to reclaim the record set in 2003, when he climbed Everest at the age of 70. The record was beaten last year by a retired Japanese schoolteacher, 71-year-old Katsusuke Yanagisawa. Miura went ahead with the latest climb despite undergoing two heart operations since his previous ascent.

Younghusband was elected President of the Royal Geographic Society in 1919, and later became co-founder and Chairman of the Mount Everest Committee which was set up to co-ordinate the reconnaissance of Mount Everest. He actively encouraged climbers, including George Mallory, to attempt the first ascent of Mount Everest, and they followed the same initial route as the earlier Tibet Mission. However, Younghusband was regretfully never able to scale the peak himself.

• BROWSE / IN TIMELINE
• « The Principles of War: 3. Offensive Action
• » The End of Nepal’s Royal House