Nepal Travel Blog Trekking, tour , climbing & expedition
KATMANDU, Nepal : A brief improvement in weather conditions has allowed the oldest person to climb Mount Everest to leave the mountain on a helicopter.
The aircraft picked up 80-year-old Yuichiro Miura at Camp 2 and flew him to the base camp and then to Katmandu on Sunday.
He had initially planned to leave the mountain on Saturday but poor visibility and bad weather conditions forced the cancellation of the helicopter flight.
The weather improved briefly on Sunday, allowing the flight.
Miura, a Japanese former extreme skier, told reporters at Katmandu’s airport that he was happy to have set a new record for oldest climber.
He scaled the 8,850-meter (29,035-foot) peak on Thursday. A competitor, Nepal’s Min Bahadur Sherchan, 81, is still on the mountain hoping to break Miura’s record.–AP
Japanese mountain climber Yuichiro Miura, 80, shows the victory sign upon his arrival at the airport after climbing Mount Everest, in Kathmandu May 26, 2013. Miura, who has had four heart surgeries, reached the top of Mount Everest on Thursday becoming the oldest person to conquer the world’s highest mountain. Miura, who first climbed Everest in 2003 and repeated the feat five years later, takes the oldest climber record from Nepal’s Min Bahadur Sherchan, who reached the summit at the age of 76 in 2008.
