Climber, 85, dies in record attempt

KATHMANDU, Nepal - An 85-year-old Nepali man has died while attempting to regain his title as the oldest person to climb Qomolangma, known in the West as Mount Everest, officials said.

Min Bahadur Sherchan died at Qomolangma base camp on Saturday evening. The cause of death was not immediately clear, but the expedition organizer said Sherchan died of altitude sickness rather than a heart attack, which had been reported earlier.

Sherchan, a grandfather of 17 and great-grandfather to six, first scaled the 8,850-meter Qomolangma in May 2008 when he was 76, becoming the oldest climber to reach the top.

His record was broken in 2013 by 80-year-old Japanese Yuichiro Miura.

Before leaving for the mountain last month, Sherchan said that once he had completed the climb and became famous, he intended to travel to conflict areas to spread a message of peace.

He had trained for months before the attempt, saying that he did not suffer from any respiratory problems and his blood pressure was normal.

Being born in the mountains, he said he had did not have any problems with high altitude or the low levels of oxygen there.

Sherchan's love of mountaineering began in 1960 when he was assigned by the Nepalese government to be a liaison officer for the Swiss team climbing Mount Dhaulagiri.

Renowned Swiss climber Ueli Steck, who was training to scale Qomolangma, was killed last Sunday on a nearby mountain.

Associated Press