Oldest person to summit Mount Everest says he won't be doing it again

The oldest person to climb the world's highest mountain says he's heading for the hills. Yuichiro Miura, who reached the top of Mount Everest at the age of 80 last week, said that he will not attempt any more climbs of the world's highest peak - even as his one-year-older rival was at Everest's base camp attempting to regain his title as the oldest to conquer the mountain.



"I think three times is enough," Miura, a Japanese former extreme skier, told reporters in Kathmandu, Nepal's capital. "At this point I could not think of anything but rest." A brief improvement in weather conditions allowed Miura to leave Everest on a helicopter on Sunday, three days after he scaled the mountain's 8,850-metre  (29,035-foot) peak.

Despite a history of heart problems Miura climbed Everest when he was 70 and then again at 75. Miura conquered the mountain last week despite undergoing heart surgery in January for an irregular heartbeat, or arrhythmia, his fourth heart operation since 2007. He also broke his pelvis and left thigh bone in a 2009 skiing accident.


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Nepalese climber Min Bahadur Sherchan, 81, is still at Everest preparing to attempt to scale the peak. He held the record for oldest to reach the top for five years until Miura snatched the title. "I hope his success is good news. I wish him best of luck," Miura said.