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I hope I have as much energy as Yuichioro Miura when I'm his age - at age 80, he's planning on climbing Mt. Everest.

Miura, who's most famous for skiing down the Lhotse face of Everest in 1970 in the documentary "The Man Who Skied Down Everest," was also considered the oldest man to ever summit Everest. Until last week, that is, when Nepalese Min Bahadur Sherchan successfully climbed Everest last year at age 76.


"I congratulate Mr. Sherchan on his success to substantiate his feat," Miura told AFP by telephone from Japan's Sapporo, where he was skiing despite having broken his femur and pelvis in a ski accident in February. "It is quite awesome to climb Everest after the age of 70," he said. "It is still more awesome to do it at 76. In a sense, he has helped expand the possibilities for people in an aging society."

Miura plans to reclaim his title (which he first earned when he was 70) in 2013, when he'll be 80 years old, by scaling the north face of Everest (he's already climbed the south side twice). "If possible, I want to assault Everest from China's side in 2013," he said, having ascended it twice from the Nepalese side.

Muira is planning to train with successive training climbs."I will start at around 5,000 (metres) sometime next autumn," Miura said. "Then I will go for 6,000, 7,000, and Everest."

Pretty impressive.

Via Outside