Days after a 80 year-old Japanese climber, Yuichiro Miura, became the oldest person to conquer Mount Everest, an 82 year-old Nepali whose record was broken is now on his way up the world’s highest mountain to reclaim the title. Min Bahadur Sherchan is headed towards the world’s highest peak with an objective of getting back his Guinness World Record of a climb by a senior citizen, set by him when he was 76 years old in 2008 and which was broken recently by the Japanese.
Mr. Yuichiro Miura is on his way home after becoming the oldest climber to reach the summit of Everest on Thursday. In 2008, Mr. Sherchan reached the summit a day before Mr. Miura.
However, it was Mr. Miura’s ascent that made it into Guinness World Records, forcing Mr. Sherchan to travel to London to set the record straight.
Back in Nepal, he gathered paperwork, photos, witness accounts and media reports to confirm his ascent, and his feat finally entered the record books in 2010.
Mr. Sherchan was headed towards the top along with his five aides, said Liaison Officer of the Everest Base Camp, Wanchhu Sherpa. Sherpa said Sherchan was at Camp-1 on May 26.
Sherchan was at the Base Camp due to lack of expenses.
The meeting of the Council of Ministers held on Thursday had decided to waive royalty of Mr. Sherchan and to provide support of 10 lakh Nepali Rupees, state-run RSS news agency reported.
The Alpine Everest Guides Nepal has taken the responsibility of Mr. Sherchan expedition. Mr. Sherchan started his journey of Mount Everest on May 26 with a target to reach the Everest summit on May 29.
Mr. Sherchan dismissed talk that he was making the climb because he was in danger of losing his record. He said he had planned to reach the summit last year but failed to secure financial support.
“Why should I go to set a record? I have my own record. I wanted to climb Everest in my eighth decade,” he said before he left for the base camp.
This year marks the 60th anniversary of the first expedition to reach the summit of Everest — Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay made it to the top of the mountain on May 29, 1953.
Before he boarded his flight at Kathmandu airport on Sunday, Mr. Miura said he had scaled Everest for the last time.
Together, the octogenarians have defied the limits of human possibility. At 8,848 metres, oxygen concentration at the summit is a third of that at sea level.
At such high altitudes, the physical condition of the body ages 70 years — making the climbers’ aerobic capacity 150 years and older, according to Mr. Miura’s team.
