73-year-old Japanese Grandma Tomiko Watanabe has proven that age is just a number. On the 19th, she successfully summited Mount Everest, the world’s highest peak at 8,848 meters, once again breaking her own record as the oldest female to reach the summit, set a decade ago.
According to Japan’s Kyodo News, Watanabe was in good health after the climb and has already begun her descent. Committed to environmental protection, she is picking up trash left behind by other climbers as she descends and is expected to reach Nepal’s capital, Kathmandu, in about eight to nine days at the earliest.
Watanabe, from Fujikawaguchiko Town in Yamanashi Prefecture, along with four teammates, climbed Everest via the northern route from Tibet. They first reached a camp near 8,300 meters in altitude, then set out from the camp on the evening of the 18th, Nepal time, to make their summit push. Around 7 a.m. on the 19th, they successfully reached the summit once again.
Prior to this, Watanabe summited Mount Everest in May 2002 at the age of 63, breaking the previous world record held by a Polish female mountaineer. Photographer Noriyuki Muraguchi, who was also part of her team, conquered Everest for the seventh time on the 19th, setting a new personal record for the most Everest summits by a Japanese climber.
Watanabe developed a passion for mountaineering when she was 28 years old and working for the Kanagawa Prefectural Government. She summited her first 8,000-meter peak in 1991 and in 2004, she conquered five peaks over 8,000 meters in a single year.
The current record for the oldest person to summit Mount Everest is held by Nepali mountaineer Min Bahadur Sherchan, who reached the top in 2008 at the age of 76.
Other septuagenarian Everest summiteers include Japanese explorer Yuichiro Miura, who set the world record at the time by reaching the summit at age 70 in 2003, and then conquered the peak again at age 75 in 2008.