Extreme Ins(As)piration

Japanese mountaineer Takao Arayama, 70, in blue, scales Mt. Everest, the world's highest peak, Nepal, Wednesday, May 17, 2006. (Kenji Kondo / AP Photo)

It takes the vigour and strength of youth, the prowess of well developed athletic ability, the passion of an explorer and the determination of a mind set on conquering the vicissitudes of unpredictable and sometimes catastrophic geological and atmospheric conditions hugely hindering progress -- let alone the dangers inherent in clambering to such heights where oxygen is too thin for normal human activities, both cerebral and physical to be relied upon -- to hope for a successful outcome.

Despite all of these harrowing and most difficult conditions -- including the rather nasty occurrences when climbers come across the stiff and frozen bodies of those who have not managed to succeed, and who remain as sad reminders of human hubris and conditions inimical to human endurance at altitudes and in dangerous places where no rescue missions to retrieve and give proper burial can take place -- aspirants still flock to the fabulous Himalaya.

Two bodies retrieved by a Sherpa mission

There are those for whom it is no longer enough of a prestigious plaudit to simply manage to summit Mount Everest. Now there are the 'firsts' that have assumed monumental proportions of acclaim. The youngest to summit the mountain, taking the obligatory photograph as proof. And just recently a very fit and determined woman from Saudi Arabia became the first from the Middle East to achieve the summit, alongside her companions, also from the Middle East.

But these are young, energetic and fit people. How about older people? There was one occasion where a quite elderly man insisted he needed to repeat the feat of climbing the mountain, too many years after his first initial success. And it was left to the patient prowess of the long-suffering Sherpas to manage to manoeuvre him in his mission to succeed. Many make the ascent without supplemental oxygen; something not just anyone can succeed at in that oxygen-starved atmosphere.

And now two octogenarians are competing against one another for the honour of achieving the summit, representing the oldest people to manage that stunning feat. Most people in their 70s struggle to clamber up a gentle sloping hill of several hundred feet in height. Mount Everest's height is a monumental 8,848 metres. From base camp there are a series of other camps toward which aspirants climb and then acclimatize before moving on to the higher camps and finally the summit.


Yuichiro Miura of Japan, 80 years of age, set out to claim the record of oldest mountaineer to reach the summit of Mount Everest, to best his own record at age 75, achieved in 2008. He happens also to be the first man to ski down Everest -- another historical first. This attempt will be his third climb to the summit. In 2003 he scaled Mount Everest at age 70. When he made his second ascent at age 75 he discovered that Min Bahadur Sherchan at age 76 had reached the peak before him -- by a day.



Now the two are locked in a conquest that each is determined to win. British Army Gurkha pensioner Min Bahadur Sherchan is a year older than Yuichiro Miura. Mr. Miura has begin his climb, starting out from base camp and determined to set a new world record: "We plan to stand on the summit on May 24 ... We are all doing well, getting in position to tackle the mountain", he wrote on his website.

The man rivalling his efforts planned to begin his ascent a few days later. He claims that he would take back the record within days if Mr. Miura was successful, believing himself to be a better climber, even while acknowledging Mr. Miura's technical ability. "I am sure I will break my won record", 81-year-old Sherchan said, confident he would make his own country proud of his achievement once again.

Min Bahadur Sherchan, Nepali ex-soldier, who reached the summit of Mount Everest on May, 25 2008 at the age of 76 years 340 days and is the oldest summitteer of Everest. Here shown at Summitteers Summit at COP-15 in Copenhagen Dec.11, 2009

He will be 82 next month and ascribes his long life and incredible endurance and physical strength to his diet and his exercise regime. Other elderly people can only look on with awe at such exploits at such a ripe old age. And wish both of the contestants well in their endeavours.