TOKYO (AFP) — Japanese skier Yuichiro Miura, 75, is gearing up to become the oldest person to scale Mount Everest despite undergoing two heart surgeries, his office said Friday.
Miura, who skiied down Everest in 1970, will leave next week for the Himalayas with his son, Yuta.
His team plans to approach from the Tibetan side and reach the 8,848-metre (29,028-feet) peak on May 16, his office said.
"The hurdle is high but Lady Luck of Qomolangma is calling me," Miura told reporters Thursday, using Everest's Tibetan name.
"Ageing is inevitable for humans. But if you have goals in life, you should go through the physical and mental training, forget about age and embark on the challenges," he said.
If successful, Miura would break the current record for Everest's oldest conqueror, set last year by another Japanese man -- Katsusuke Yanagisawa, who was 71 years and two months at the time.
Miura is no stranger to the world's highest mountain and last conquered it in 2003. But since then he has undergone two heart operations.
His office said the 75-year-old's body would feel twice as old in the conditions on Mount Everest in summer due to low oxygen concentration, low pressure, severe winds and frigid temperatures.
"This project not only symbolises Yuichiro's personal challenge to his age and his heart condition, but is an ultimate anti-ageing project that may expand the horizon of human possibilities," it said.
Miura won international fame in 1970 when he became the first person to ski down the South Col of Mount Everest. He used a parachute as a brake.
The 8,000-metre (26,400-foot) descent was immortalised in an Academy-winning documentary film, "The Man Who Skied Down Everest," in 1975.
When he reached the Everest summit in 2003 from the Nepalese side, he was at the time the oldest person to stand on the world's highest spot.
But after his 2003 climb, Miura suffered an irregular heartbeat and other problems due to ageing and severe climbing activities.
"My condition has greatly improved since before ... I mean, since I was 70," the silver-haired skiier said with a smile in an interview with the Fuji television network.
"I think the possibility (of my success) is considerably high," he said in footage aired Friday.
Athletic feats run in Miura's family. His father Keizo Miura made headlines in February 2003 when he skied down a run in the renowned Vallee Blanche area of Mont Blanc, western Europe's tallest mountain, at age 99.
Keizo marked his 70th birthday by skiing down a Himalayan glacier, his 77th birthday descending Kenya's Mount Kilimanjaro, and his 88th birthday by completing a 100-kilometre cross-country traverse of the European Alps.
He died in 2006 at age 101.
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