80-year-old becomes oldest climber to reach summit of Mount Everest

A Japanese 80-year-old has become the oldest man to reach the summit of Mount Everest.

Extreme skier Yuichiro Miura conquered the 29,035ft peak at 9am local time Thursday morning, beating his 81-year-old rival, Nepalese Min Bahadur Sherchan, to the top.

Mr Miura climbed Mount Everest five years ago, but just missed out on the record when Mr Serchan, a former Gurkha, accomplished the feat aged 76.

Mr Miura and his son Gota called the support team from the summit to report the news.

‘This is the world's best feeling,’ Mr Miura said. ‘I'm also totally exhausted.’

His rival, Mr Sherchan, is at the base camp on Mount Everest preparing for his own attempt on the summit next week.

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, adding: 'If the limit of age 80 is at the summit of Mt Everest, the highest place on earth, one can never be happier.'

Miura reached the South Col, the jumping-off point for most final ascents, on Tuesday, according to his website, which also posted pictures of him eating hand-rolled sushi inside a tent.

Gyanendra Shrestha, a Nepalese mountaineering official at the base camp, confirmed that he had reached the summit on Thursday morning.

Public broadcaster NHK showed footage of Mr Miura's daughter Emili talking with them via speaker phone in Tokyo, clapping when her brother told her they had reached the top.

Mr Miura's new record will only last a few days if Sherchan is able to follow him.

Miura's daughter, Emili Miura, said he 'doesn't really care' about the rivalry. 'He's doing it for his own challenge,' she said.

The situation was not too different five years ago, when, at the age of 75, Miura sought to recapture the title of oldest man to summit the mountain. He had set the record in 2003 at age 70, but it was later broken twice by slightly older Japanese climbers.

He reached the summit on May 26, 2008, at the age of 75 years and 227 days, according to Guinness World Records, however the record eluded him because Sherchan had scaled the summit the day before, at the age of 76 years and 340 days.

His daughter Emili Miura said her father decided to go ahead with the expedition, despite having had four heart surgeries, because he felt that at age 80, he was running out of time.

Mr Miura fractured his pelvis and left thigh bone in a 2009 skiing accident, and had an operation in January for an irregular heartbeat, or arrhythmia, his fourth heart surgery since 2007, Ms Miura said.

Still competitive: Min Bahadur Sherchan has announced he plans to start climbing Everest next week after hearing his record could be broken

Still competitive: Mr Sherchan will start climbing Everest next week to retake his record

On his ascent, Miura made a stop at the rarely used Camp 5 to take a break between the South Col and the summit. Almost all the climbers these days walk straight from Camp 4 to the summit.

Mr Miura was well-known long before his late-in-life mountaineering pursuits, as an extreme skier.

He skied down Everest's South Col in 1970, using a parachute to brake his descent. The feat was captured in the Oscar-winning 1975 documentary, 'The Man Who Skied down Everest.'

In 1964, he briefly set a world speed skiing record in the Italian Alps, reaching 107 mph. He also skied down Mt. Fuji using parachutes.

It wasn't until Miura was 70, however, that he first climbed all the way to the summit of Everest. When he summited again at 75, he claimed to be the only man to accomplish the feat twice in his 70s. After that, he said he was determined to climb again at age 80.

Mr Miura was accompanied on the expedition by his son Gota, 43, a two-time Olympian skier, who also  summited Everest in 2003 with his father.

Mr Miura's rival, Mr Sherchan first began mountaineering in 1960 when he climbed Mount Dhaulagiri, the 8,167-meter (26,790-foot) high peak in Nepal, according to his grandson, Manoj Guachan.

Always an adventurer, and unbowed by age, he walked the length of Nepal in 2003.

Sherchan and his team said Wednesday that they were prepared for their new climb, despite digestive problems he suffered several days ago.

Our team leader has just arrived back at base camp and we are holding a team meeting on when exactly I will head up to the summit,' Sherchan, who uses a hearing aid, said by telephone from the base camp.

'I am fine and in good health. I am ready to take up the challenge. Our plan is to reach the summit within one week.'

It takes three to four days for climbers to reach Camp 4 on South Col from base camp, and another day to reach the summit.

There are only a few windows of good weather during the climbing season in May for people to attempt the summit.

Sherchan's team is also facing financial difficulties. It hasn't received the financial help that the Nepal government announced it would provide them.

Purna Chandra Bhattarai, chief of Nepal's mountaineering department, said the aid proposal was still under consideration.