Yanagisawa oldest on Everest

TOKYO – A retired Japanese teacher aged 71 has become the world’s oldest person to climb to the top of Mount Everest, according to a mountaineering group yesterday.

The Japan Mountaineering Association said Katsusuke Yanagisawa reached the top of the world’s highest mountain on May 22. He said he enjoyed a sunny breeze at the top for 30 minutes.”It was a fantastic feeling,” Yanagisawa told the Shinano Mainichi Shimbun, his hometown newspaper, from a hotel in Kathmandu after the descent.”I was glad to reach the summit because, after that, all that was left was to climb down.”Yanagisawa, who lives in the central mountain city of Nagano, beat a record set the previous year by a compatriot.”We have been told that Mr Katsusuke Yanagisawa of Nagano reached the summit and became the oldest person to reach there,” said a spokesman for the Japan Mountaineering Association.Previously the oldest climber to reach the highest point on the planet was Takao Arayama, who was 70 when he reached the 8,848-metre summit in May 2006.Yanagisawa said he went with a team including New Zealanders and Japanese who scaled the mountain from the Tibetan side of Everest.Nampa-AFPHe said he enjoyed a sunny breeze at the top for 30 minutes.”It was a fantastic feeling,” Yanagisawa told the Shinano Mainichi Shimbun, his hometown newspaper, from a hotel in Kathmandu after the descent.”I was glad to reach the summit because, after that, all that was left was to climb down.”Yanagisawa, who lives in the central mountain city of Nagano, beat a record set the previous year by a compatriot.”We have been told that Mr Katsusuke Yanagisawa of Nagano reached the summit and became the oldest person to reach there,” said a spokesman for the Japan Mountaineering Association.Previously the oldest climber to reach the highest point on the planet was Takao Arayama, who was 70 when he reached the 8,848-metre summit in May 2006.Yanagisawa said he went with a team including New Zealanders and Japanese who scaled the mountain from the Tibetan side of Everest.Nampa-AFP