Records are meant to be made and broken – but not over and over for the same record with the same people. As I reported during the 2009 spring season, cheap many records were established for youngest, fastest, etc. And for the oldest person to summit Everest, I wrote:
The oldest was 76-year-old Bahadur Sherchan, from Nepal on May 26, 2008. However Japanese Yuichiro Miura (the man who skied down Everest) has now been recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records to be the oldest summitter at age 75 since Mr. Sherchan could not prove his birth date. Tamae Watanabe also of Japan is the oldest woman to summit at age 63 on May 16, 2002.
Well, not exactly. Today, it was reported in the Japan Times that Mr. Sherchan was in fact older than Mr. Miura thus becoming the oldest person to summit Everest. It is reported that:
A certificate given to him by Guinness World Records reads, “The oldest man to climb Mt. Everest is Min Bahadur Sherchan (Nepal b. 20 June 1931) who reached the summit on 25 May 2008 at the age of 76 years 340 days.”
So there we have it – I think. Sincere congratulation to both Mr. Miura and Mr. Sherchan for such an accomplishment in the mid 70’s. I really don’t care which is older, I admire you both.
