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DPA/PA Images

85-year-old attempting to reclaim title as oldest person to summit Everest dies at base camp

The former soldier became the world’s oldest climber to summit Everest in 2008 when he was 76.

An 85-YEAR-OLD ex-Gurkha who was attempting to reclaim his title as the world’s oldest person to summit Mount Everest died at base camp today.

Min Bahadur Sherchan was on a bid to reclaim a title that he lost to Japanese mountaineer Yuichiro Miura in 2013.

“He passed away at the base camp today at 5:14pm,” Gyanendra Shrestha, an official with the tourism ministry who is at the 5,380 metres (17,600 feet) camp, told AFP.

The former soldier became the world’s oldest climber to summit Everest in 2008 when he was 76, but he lost the record five years later when Miura summited the 8,848-metre peak at the age of 80.

Speaking to AFP from Kathmandu in February, the slightly hard of hearing grandfather said he just wanted to prove to himself that he could still make it to the top of the world.

My aim is not to break anybody’s record, this is not a personal competition between individuals. I wish to break my own record.

Sherchan’s death is the second fatality of the spring climbing season on Everest, which runs from late April to the end of May.

Experienced Swiss climber Ueli Steck died last month when he fell from a steep ridge during an acclimatisation climb.

Nearly 750 people will be attempting to reach the summit of the world’s highest peak during the narrow window of good weather that usually falls in mid-May.

Hundreds of climbers have been on Everest for weeks to acclimatise before making a bid for the top.

This year is particularly crowded as it is the last chance for climbers who were forced off the mountain by the devastating 2015 earthquake to use their extended permits. This has raised concerns about dangerous traffic jams on the mountain.

Mountaineering is a major revenue earner for impoverished Nepal, home to eight of the world’s 14 peaks over 8,000 metres.

© – AFP 2017

Read: Is Everest still the tallest peak? Scientists aren’t too sure>

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    Mute Just Me
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    May 6th 2017, 3:43 PM

    Sad to hear, but he died as he lived attempting to overcome the odds. A hero.

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    Mute Teddy
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    May 6th 2017, 3:45 PM

    @just me,and people say the word hero is overused,

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    Mute Grainne Abdulaziz
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    May 6th 2017, 3:54 PM

    @Just Me: Beautiful tribute, you should write the taglines for Hollywood blockbusters.

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    Mute John O'Driscoll
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    May 6th 2017, 3:45 PM

    Better to live one day as a tiger than a lifetime of a lamb and if you get 85 years of it and die having a peak experience you really must consider yourself truly blessed and the rest of us truly awed. RIP. May he have attained instant Moksha.

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    Mute John O'Driscoll
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    May 6th 2017, 3:54 PM

    @Teddy: I love that old Arabic expression: ”The dogs bark but the caravans pass on by.” Call it what you will there is a glorious madness in those few of us who dare to reach for the unreachable. Was it Browning said ”Ah but if a man’s reach were as long as his grasp there’d be no need for heav’n”?

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    Mute John O'Driscoll
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    May 6th 2017, 4:08 PM

    @Teddy: lol

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    Mute Niall O D
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    May 6th 2017, 5:37 PM

    @John O’Driscoll: there’s an old Irish expression “when the caravans park up, we know the whole local community is f ucked”

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    Mute rohail malik
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    May 6th 2017, 6:02 PM

    @Teddy: Noice one,quoting Mussolini

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    Mute Damien Mc Padden
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    May 6th 2017, 6:13 PM

    @rohail malik: That wasn’t Mussolini, twas Padraig Nally.

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    Mute Ger Healy
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    May 6th 2017, 6:27 PM

    @Teddy: Sad that the only way you can feel good about your boring mundane life is to make a derogatory ageist comment about someone whose boots you wouldn’t be fit to clean.

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    Mute Lad
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    May 6th 2017, 3:40 PM

    Peaking Mount Everest at 80 must be up there with the greatest ever human achievement. That doesn’t even make sense..

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    Mute Σ ΛΛ ΛΛ Θ
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    May 6th 2017, 8:24 PM

    Died doing what he loved, fair play to him.

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    Mute Neal Ireland Hello.
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    May 7th 2017, 12:12 PM

    @Σ ΛΛ ΛΛ Θ: Dying?

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    Mute David
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    May 6th 2017, 5:06 PM

    Climbing Everest at 30 is extremely dangerous. Balls on that man like a Bengali tiger!

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    Mute Frog Náireach
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    May 6th 2017, 9:41 PM

    At least he went out on a high. RIP. Dia leis.

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    Mute Andi Black
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    May 7th 2017, 12:52 AM

    Rest in Peace Min Bahadur Sherchan

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    Mute Eamonn Sheen
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    May 6th 2017, 4:32 PM

    The ego on him.

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    Mute Paul Mc Manus
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    May 6th 2017, 8:22 PM

    Okok I’m going to Hell. I kinda laughed at this. Sorrrryyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy……. One-wat ticket to Hell please.

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    Mute Una Nolan
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    May 7th 2017, 12:49 AM

    Oh sorry rip

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    Mute Alan McCartney
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    May 6th 2017, 7:45 PM

    Here stay in and watch telly me man

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    Mute Una Nolan
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    May 7th 2017, 12:48 AM

    What is he trying to prove,Enjoy life

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