Monday, November 23, 2009
New Record For Oldest Everest Summiteer!
According to this story from the Japan Times, the Guinness Book of World Records has proclaimed Min Bahadur Sherchan of Nepal the oldest person to ever reach the summit of Everest, knocking Japanese climber Yuichiro Miura from the literal and figurative lofty spot.
Both men climbed the mountain back in 2008, with Sherchan being the first to go up on May 25th of that year. Miura followed two days later. At the time, Sherchan was 76 years, 340 days old, while his rival was a mere 75 years of age. Miura was given the recognition from Guinness because Sherchan failed to produce the proper documentation. That has since been rectified, and Guinness has updated their listings to acknowledge his accomplishment.
If and when I ever hit the age of 75, I sure hope I still have the kind of energy these two men do. I'd like to still be traveling the world and exploring amazing places. I can't imagine reaching the summit of Everest at the age of 40, let alone 75 or 76 (+340 days!) Both stories are amazing, and glad to see Sherchan getting his just recognition outside of the regular climbing circles.
Thanks to Alan Arnette for sharing this story. As many of you already know, year in and year out, Alan offers the best coverage of the spring climbing season on Everest, and the Himalaya as a whole. in preparation for the 2010 season, he'd like to know a little bit about how we use the site and the kind of information we seek when we visit. To help Alan out, take this brief survey, and perhaps we can make the already great coverage even better. Thanks Alan!