Min Bahadur Sherchan (r. , with expedition leader Shiva Bahadur Sapkota)

He wanted to regain the age record, now he has died in the Base Camp at the feet of Mount Everest. Min Bahadur Sherchan passed away on Saturday afternoon local time, said Gyanendra Shrestha, an official of the Ministry of Tourism, who is staying in the Base Camp on the Nepali side of the highest mountain on Earth. The doctors, according to Shrestha, suspected a heart attack as the cause of death. It is the second fatality of this spring’s climbing season on Mount Everest, after Ueli Steck’s ​fall to death on Nuptse last Sunday.

Two failed attempts

After his Everest summit success in 2008

Sherchan wanted to snatch away the Everest age record from Yuichiro Miura. In 2013, the Japanese, then aged 80, had replaced Sherchan as “Everest Methuselah”. For five years, the Nepalese had previously led the record list after standing on the highest mountain on earth at the age of 76 years and 340 days. Already shortly after Miura’s summit success, towards the end of the Everest spring season 2013, and then 2015 too, Min Bahadur had tried to get back the record. In 2013, however, the Nepalese had fallen above Everest Base Camp and suffered a rib injury. In addition, no weather window had opened at this late stage of season. Two years later, the devastating earthquake in Nepal with almost 9,000 deaths had led to the cancellation of all activities on Everest.

No Everest age limit in Nepal

Sherchan before the expedition

As a young man, Sherchan had been a soldier in the Gurkha regiment. Later he had earned his money as a farmer, construction worker and finally hotel owner. “I may be old in terms of age but I still have a young courage,” Sherchan had said before the expedition. “I will reach the summit of Everest, whatever may come.” It was also due to the chronic drowsiness of the Nepali government that Sherchan was allowed to climb Everest this spring. Once again, the responsible people in Kathmandu had not managed to amend the “Mountaineering Expedition Regulation”, which is in force since 2002. Last year’s draft  included a ban on mountaineers older than 75 years.

Min Bahadur Sherchan

Why does a 85-year-old need to climb Mount Everest? For world peace. For environmental protection. For the self-confidence of old people. As an inspiration for the young. All these alleged reasons had to serve when, earlier this week, Min Bahadur Sherchan officially announced in Kathmandu that he would try to reach the 8850-meter-summit this spring. The real and only issue is to regain the Everest age record from Yuichiro Miura. In 2013, the Japanese, then aged 80, had replaced Sherchan as “Everest Methuselah”. For five years, the Nepalese had previously led the record list after standing on the highest mountain on earth at the age of 76 years and 340 days.

Old with “young courage”

Record holder Yuichiro Miura

Already shortly after Miura’s summit success, towards the end of the Everest spring season 2013, and then 2015 too, Min Bahadur had tried to get back the record. In 2013, however, the Nepalese had fallen above Everest Base Camp and suffered a rib injury. In addition, no weather window had opened at this late stage of season. Two years later, the devastating earthquake in Nepal with almost 9,000 deaths had led to the cancellation of all activities on Everest. Now the oldie is determined to do it again. “I may be old in terms of age but I still have a young courage,” Sherchan said. “I will reach the summit of Everest, whatever may come.”

Ex-Gurkha not in the Ghurka expedition

Sherchan after his Everest summit success in 2008

A strong team of six Sherpas including some Everest summiters is to help the senior up to the highest point. The expedition had been made possible by a donation campaign that had been launched by Nepalese people living in Great Britain. Earlier this year, British media reported that Sherchan, who had been a soldier in the Gurkha regiment of the British army as a young man, would be a member of the Gurkha Everest expedition 2017. It turned out to be a media hoax. “He is not part of the British Army Gurkha team. His venture is a separate private attempt,” the organizers of the British expedition wrote to me.

Still no age limit for old people

It is also due to the chronic drowsiness of the Nepali government that Sherchan is allowed to climb Everest this spring. Once again, the responsible people in Kathmandu have not managed to amend the “Mountaineering Expedition Regulation”, which is in force since 2002. Last year’s draft  included a ban on mountaineers older than 75 years. Perhaps the rule will be introduced when Min Bahadur Sherchan will have brought back the age record to Nepal.

How much helicopter should be allowed on Everest?l

The spring season on Mount Everest is over, but not the discussion about what happened at the highest mountain in the world. The Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) has set up a committee to clarify whether, when and how often helicopters were used to airlift team members of the Chinese female climber Wang Jing and the Brazilian-American Cleo Weidlich to Camp 2 at 6400 meters. On 23 May, Wang was the first person who reached the summit of Mount Everest this spring, just before the first successes from the north side were reported. Weidlich originally planned to climb Lhotse, but in her own words she made no real attempt to reach the summit.

Pilot confirmed passenger transport to Camp 2

According to the newspaper Himalayan Times the Italian pilot Maurizio Folini has confirmed that he has flown Wang Jing from Base Camp to Camp 2 on 10 May and also picked her up again there by helicopter on 25 May. After returning to Kathmandu the Chinese woman reportedly claimed that she never used a helicopter to reach Camp 2. Only two Sherpas had been flown up, she said. “This would seem to be a distinction without a difference since they were helping her ascent”, the legendary chronicler of Himalayan mountaineering, Elizabeth Hawley, writes to me. So far only rescue flights were allowed higher than Base Camp. This spring the Nepalese government had only made an exception to let fly out material from Camp 2 after the premature end of all expeditions.

Good idea

Miura after his return to Base Camp by helicopter

I had written to Elizabeth Hawley because I hesitate to call Wang Jing’s summit success a complete ascent of Everest and wanted to know how the 90-year-old U.S. chronicler deals with this climb in her “Himalayan Database”. “You have raised a good point about climbers using helicopters to fly over dangerous terrain in their ascents”, answered Miss Hawley. “We at the Database think we need to add a new category of caveats perhaps called aviation-assisted climbs. That category would also include Yuichiro Miura’s climb of Everest in spring 2013, when he flew out of Camp II to Base Camp to avoid the Icefall. And Cleo Weidlich’s attempt on Lhotse this spring.” I think, it’s a good idea. After the action of the 80-year-old Japanese Miura who had set a new age record last year, I had already asked in my blog how much helicopter should be allowed on Everest. After the avalanche in the Khumbu Icefall on 18 April which killed 16 Nepalese climbers this question could be more urgent than ever.

Update 8 June: Wang Jing meanwhile admitted that she had used a helicopter on Everest. “The Sherpas have great mental pressure and they were reluctant to step into that place”, Wang said in an interview of China News Service. “I knew our decision could discount the climbing efforts. However, I would like to accept the losses for the sake of safety.”