Oldest Everest conqueror finally decides to put his feet up at the age of 80

“I think three times is enough,” said Yuichiro Miura, who reached the top of Everest at the age of 80 on Thursday. “At this point I could not think of anything but rest.”

A brief improvement in weather conditions allowed Miura, a Japanese former extreme skier, to fly by helicopter from Everest to Katmandu, Nepal’s capital, yesterday, three days after he scaled Everest’s 29,035ft peak.

He had initially planned to leave the mountain on Saturday, but poor weather conditions forced the cancellation of the helicopter flight. Meanwhile, Miura’s 81-year-old rival, Nepalese climber Min Bahadur Sherchan, was at Everest’s base camp preparing to attempt to regain his title as the oldest to conquer the mountain. Sherchan held the record for five years until Miura snatched the title.

“I hope his success is good news. I wish him best of luck,” Miura said in Japanese, with his son Gota, 43, who reached the top of Everest with his father.

Miura, however, insisted that Sherchan back up any claim of scaling Everest’s peak with clear photographs of the climber showing his face at the summit.

Miura had climbed Everest in May 2008 at age 75, but Sherchan did the same a day earlier at 76.

Miura conquered the mountain again on Thursday despite undergoing heart surgery in January for an irregular heartbeat, his fourth heart operation since 2007. He also broke his pelvis and left thigh bone in a 2009 skiing accident.

Miura became famous when he was a young man as a daredevil speed skier.

He skied down Everest’s South Col in 1970, using a parachute to break his descent. The feat was captured in the Oscar-winning 1975 documentary, “The Man Who Skied Down Everest.” It was not until Miura was 70, however, that he first climbed to the top of Everest. When he summited again at 75, he claimed to be the only man to accomplish the feat twice in his 70s.