Posted on 05/17/2006 3:27:28 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
TOKYO - A mountaineering company claimed that a 70-year-old Japanese man on one of its expeditions Wednesday became the oldest person to scale Mount Everest, edging the record-holder by three days.
A spokesman for Guinness World Records in London said it couldn't immediately confirm the feat.
Takao Arayama, aged 70 years, 7 months and 13 days, scaled the 29,035-foot peak, according to Toshinori Koya, who heads Tokyo-based company Adventure Guides, which planned the climb.
The Guinness World Records Web site says the record has been held by Yuichiro Miura, also of Japan, who reached the summit at the age of 70 years, 7 months and 10 days, on May 22, 2003.
Koya said Arayama climbed the mountain as part of a five-member team, and team leader Kenji Kondo contacted the company by satellite phone several hours after reaching the peak.
Arayama, a corporate management consultant, has safely descended to a lower camp on the mountain and is in good health, Koya said.
"I was just happy to hear he was safe," said Arayama's wife, Keiko, from their home in Kamakura, about 30 miles southwest of Tokyo.
"We are very proud to have helped make another climber's dream come true — that is, to climb Mount Everest," Koya said. "The record is more of a bonus."
Everest straddles the Nepal-China border. Arayama's team climbed the mountain from the Chinese side, according to an Internet journal kept by Kondo and his supporters on the Adventure Guides Web site.
The blog said Arayama started climbing seriously when in his 40s and has also scaled Mount McKinley in Alaska, North America's highest peak.
Kate White, a spokeswoman for London-based Guinness World Records, said it would take time to confirm if Arayama was the oldest.
"If he is older, we would look forward to announcing a new Guinness World Record," White said.
In order to do so, she said they would need documents like his birth certificate, photographs, witness statements and a log book of his climb.
Koya said his company would help Arayama verify the record as soon as the climber gets back to Japan.
More than 1,200 climbers have reached the summit of Mount Everest in the last 50 years and at least 175 have died trying.
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On the Net:
Guinness World Records: http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/
Adventure Guides: http://www.adventure-guides.co.jp/
Good for him. That is no small feat.
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