Yuichiro Miura, Oldest Climber of Mount Everest to Date

Last Thursday, the peak of Mount Everest was reached by the oldest climber to date, 80-year old Yuichiro Miura of Japan. Although not without hardships, Mr. Miura was able to reach the top of Mount Everest in the company of his doctor son, Gota and six Sherpas from Nepal. He himself could not believe that he was able to achieve the feat, when he clocked in at 9:05 in the morning of Thursday, Nepal time. He said that he was climbing the mountain because he wanted to “honor nature” and challenge his own maximum limit.

He reached the jump off point for the final ascent, the South Col on Tuesday. Nepalese mountaineering official, Gyanendra Shrestha, from the base camp confirmed that Mr. Miura indeed reached the summit of Mount Everest in the morning of Thursday.

Rivalry

Mr. Miura, upon reaching the 8,848 meter peak of Mount Everest this Thursday, has beaten the record set by his closest rival, Min Bahadur Sherchan of Nepal, who reached the peak in 2008 at the age of 76.

However, Mr. Sherchan is scheduled next week to again climb Mount Everest. If he makes it, he will be able to claim back the record of being the oldest man to scale the formidable and tallest mountain in the world, as he is already 81 years old.

Several attempts

This is not the first time that Mr. Miura had climbed Mount Everest. He had reached its peak in 2003 when he was 70 and again in 2008 when he was 75.

Mr. Miura is not alone in attempting to climb Mount Everest in their 70s. A Japanese woman named Tamae Watanabe scaled the mountain in 2012 at the age of 73. On the other side of the age scale, twin sisters from India, 21-year old Tashi Malik and Nunshi Malik are the first twins to scale the mountain. They made the climb in early May this year.

Never give up on a dream

Yuichiro Miura believes that you should not give up on your dream and you should not limit yourself after a certain age. His firm belief carried him through, despite breaking his hip two years ago due to an accident and undergoing heart surgery in January of this year, which is his fourth heart operation. He favors extreme sports. He is also an extreme skier and even held a world record in speed skiing once. In 2009 he broke his left thigh and his pelvis because of this sport. In 1970 he skied down the South Col of Mount Everest with the aid of a parachute to slow down his descent. It was captured and turned into a documentary in 1975, entitled, “The Man Who Skied Down Everest,” which won an Oscar. Earlier in 1964 he set a world speed skiing record when he skied at the Italian Alps at 107 mph. He had also used parachutes to break his descent when he skied down Mount Fuji.

In preparing for his latest climb on Mount Everest, he underwent special training in the city of Tokyo. He lifted a load of five kilos on each leg. He also walked three times a week with a 25-30 kilogram load attached to his back.

Image attributed to Bernard Goldbach