A 76- and 75-year-old have summited Mt. Everest, setting new age records for the world’s highest mountain. Min Bahadur Sherchan, 76, from Nepal reached the top on May 25, and Yuichiro Miura, 75, from Japan summited the next day.

Sherchan, a retired soldier, is just a few weeks from his 77th birthday. Miura had previously held the age record for Everest, which he climbed in 2003 at 70 years old. Miura also made an early ski descent on the mountain, skiing from the South Col with a parachute to slow him down in 1970, a feat (and wipe-out) immortalized in the film The Man Who Skied Down Everest. Both men hoped to promote good health among senior citizens with their climbs.

The previous age record on Everest, set last year by Katsusuke Yanagisawa, was 71. Until Sherchan’s success this month, the only climbers over 70 to top out on Everest had been from Japan.

The video clip shows Miura skiing/sliding the Lhotse Face 38 years ago (skip to the two-minute mark for the skiing footage):

Dates of Ascents: May 25-26, 2008

Sources: MountEverest.net, Snowdolphins.com, The Himalaya by the Numbers

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