The Hindu : Front Page : Old men and the mountain

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Oct 15, 2007
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Old men and the mountain

Boom in activities for the elderly
Increasing affluence is another factor

TOKYO: Yuichiro Miura has an unusual routine for a man who just turned 75.

At dawn, the veteran adventurer wakes up after a night in a private low-oxygen chamber. He straps weights onto his ankles, hoists a 44-pound backpack onto his shoulders and hikes for hours around Tokyo. Sometimes he adds a stroll on his treadmill.

Ask Mr. Miura why he isn’t on the golf course or puttering around a vegetable garden, and he has a simple answer — Mount Everest.

Mr. Miura is one of Japan’s old men of the mountain, a small cluster of graying Japanese climbers who since 2002 have been passing among themselves an august title: the oldest person to have conquered the world’s tallest peak.

“It’s a tough but wonderful thing to get to the peak when you are past 70,” Mr. Miura said. “I hope to send the message that we have the potential for many things in this aging society.” Mr. Miura is already famous for having skied down Everest in 1970, a feat captured in an Oscar-winning documentary. Now, for seniors like him, climbing the 8,850-meter Himalayan peak is as extreme an elderly activity as they come.

The country has the world’s longest-living population and is going through a boom in activities for the elderly.

Mr. Miura scaled the peak in 2003, at 70, but was eclipsed by fellow Japanese climber Takao Arayama, who scaled the peak in 2006, just three days older than Mr. Miura was when he did it. Now Mr. Miura wants to reach the top again.

“It feels like the goddess of Everest is beckoning me to come back,” said Mr. Miura, who is planning an assault on the mountain next spring, when he’ll be 75 .

Some attribute the prevalence of Japanese adventurers among the ranks of older climbers to the same factors that make them live increasingly longer: a diet heavy in vegetables and fish, excellent health care, and trim physiques.

Another factor in play is increasing affluence. Money brings world-class equipment, expert assistance , and state-of-the-art training.

Mr. Miura says setting a record isn’t all that important, since someone else will surely come along and break it. Instead, he said, “It’s about discovering what I can do.”— AP

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