Nepalese climber Min Bahadur Sherchan believed to have suffered heart attack at base camp on Saturday

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

An 85-year-old man has died while attempting to regain his title as the oldest person to climb Everest.

Min Bahadur Sherchan died at the base camp on Saturday evening, said Dinesh Bhattarai, Nepal’s tourism chief.



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Gyanendra Shrestha, a mountaineering official at the camp, said the cause of Sherchan’s death was likely cardiac arrest, but he could not give further details because of a poor telephone connection.



Sherchan, who had 17 grandchildren and six great-grandchildren, first scaled the world’s highest peak in May 2008 aged 76, becoming the oldest climber to reach the top.

His record was broken by 80-year-old Japanese climber Yuichiro Miura in 2013.

Before leaving for the mountain last month, Sherchan, from Nepal, had told the Associated Press that once he had completed the climb and become famous, he intended to travel to conflict areas to spread a message of peace.

He had trained for months before the attempt. He said he did not suffer from any respiratory problems and his blood pressure was normal. Having been born in the mountains, he said he was used to the high altitude and lack of oxygen.

Sherchan’s love of mountaineering had begun in 1960 when he was assigned by the Nepalese government as a liaison officer for the Swiss team climbing Mount Dhaulagiri.

He later became an apple farmer and constructed roads and dams before settling down to run hotels in Kathmandu.