12:32 pm CST Jan 24, 2008
(MountEverest.net) Everest skier Yuichiro Miura, 74, became record holder as the oldest Everest summiteer in 2003 at the age of 70. Last year at age 71, Japanese Katsusuke Yanagisawa became the oldest person to summit the peak.
Yuichiro Miura plans to repeat his ascent this year; from the north side this time, at age 75.
76-year-old Min Bahadur Sherchan from Nepal plans to climb Everest this spring from the south side, aided by 12 Nepali Sherpa before returning to a senior home he wants to open after summit.
Gagarin's former space engineer and 7-time Snow Leopard Boris Korshunov, latest summited Cho Oyu (8188 m) in 2007 at age 72. Now Korshunov will return to Everest north side to join the senior race for the oldest Everest summit.
Can't recall previous summit
Born 31.08.1935, Boris Korshunov has signed up with Alexander Abramov (7 Summit Club) to try to bag the record.
Boris has been on Everest several times. In an interview with RussianClimb, Boris said that he might have summited Everest already in 1999, but he can't remember. All he knows he took down some souvenirs from the summit left there previously by other climbers - stuff later confirmed by mountaineers to have been left on the top. Liz Hawley reportedly was good with that.
Boris oxygen gear malfunctioned at 8500 meters, reportedly giving Boris blackouts from the events above the Second step. On descent near 8400 meters Boris lost his backpack, glasses, radio and ice-axe, RussianClimb reported.
Georgian climbers preparing for their summit bid reported at the time, "a Russian climber fell into our tent at 9 pm, he was unconscious and in very grave condition."
On Cho Oyu last fall, Boris reportedly went on his own, left Camp 2 and planned to reach Camp 3, but didn't find his tent there and therefore decided to keep climbing - to the top at 4 pm.
Gagarin's former space engineer and 7-time Snow Leopard Boris Korshunov also attempted Dhaulagiri last spring but was caught alone and without a tent at 7,300m in the night. Denis Urubko was on the peak as well, aborted his speed ascent and helped Boris Korshunov down - then turned back up and summited the next morning, in 4,5 hours.
Denis repaid and old favor to the veteran climber, who summited Annapurna Central in 2004; helped Denis Urubko, Simone Moro and Bruno Tassi to set a new route on Baruntse North Face at the age of 68; and finished the Elbrus (5642 m) classic race at just under 5 hours (4:58:10) last year!
Boris’s Dhaula attempt came one year after an Everest attempt in his signature style - he never uses Sherpas and rarely supplementary oxygen. Boris still climbs hard, parties hard, and works hard.
Baikonur Cosmodrome was the launch site when Gagarin became the first man in Space, and from where today's ISS space 'tourists' and cargo shuttles launch. Boris Korshunov worked in the special research team preparing Gagarin's flight. He works in the Space industry to this day and was awarded for his contribution in Soviet and Russian achievements in Space on Yuri's Night, April 12th 2006.
In a previous story, responding to an incorrect Everest study on climbing and age, ExWeb wrote: "Even the Space folks have noticed [that age can be an asset]: The first Soviet Cosmonaut team was in their mid-twenties. The first Americans averaged just over 30 years. The present Shuttle Mission (STS-118) crew is averaging 47 years. Mike Melville (Spaceship One pilot) was born in 1941. Brian Binnie in 1953."
The faulty Everest age study was in fact based on another space man: US NASA astronaut Karl Gordon Henize, 63, who died of AMS at 6000 meters on Everest in 1993. Henize was a mission specialist on STS-51-F in 1985 (at 59). He did 126 orbits of the earth.
There is no reason to believe that age was a factor in his death: the Astronaut died in ABC on the North side after developing acute HAPE - a common complication of climbing affecting all ages.
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