How old is too old to climb Mount Everest, Nepal wonders

Family members of Nepalese climber Min Bahadur Sherchan mourn during his funeral in Kathmandu, Nepal yesterday. His death has sparked calls for an age limit to be set on climbers. Photo / AP

In the wake of the death of 85-year-old Min Bahadur Sherchan, officials in Nepal are considering whether to place an upper age limit on adventurers seeking to climb Mount Everest.

Nepali law requires climbers to prove that they are at least 16, but there is no upper limit. "It is very necessary to immediately bring that age-limit law," Ang Tshering, head of the Nepal Mountaineering Association, told the Associated Press. "If there had been a limit, the loss of life could have been prevented."

This April 12, 2017 file photo shows Nepalese mountain climber Min Bahadur Sherchan, 85. Photo / AP

Tshering added that the association plans to push for an upper limit of at least 76 and Dinesh Bhattarai, the head of the country's Tourism Department, told the AP that the government is seriously discussing limiting the age for elderly climbers in Nepal.

Although Sherchan was a seasoned climber and Nepal native, a 2007 study led by Raymond Huey of the University of Washington showed a significant increase in the likelihood of dying among older climbers.

Using a database of records of more than 2200 climbers from 1990 to 2005, the study showed that, overall, climbers had a 31 per cent chance of making it to the summit and a 1.5 per cent chance of dying. However, those aged 60 and up had only about a 13 per cent chance of reaching the summit. Those who did had a 25 per cent chance of dying during descent.

A change in the age limit would give Yuichiro Miura an unbreakable record. The Japanese climber made it to the summit in 2013, when he was 80, breaking the record Sherchan had set at 76 in 2008.

Trekkers pass through a glacier at the Mount Everest base camp in Nepal. Photo / AP

Sherchan, a father of seven, grandfather of 17 and great-grandfather of six, died of altitude sickness at base camp on Saturday, an official said.

"Doctors said that he died of natural causes. There was water build-up in his lungs because of altitude sickness," Shiv Raj Thapa of Summit Nepal Trekking told AFP after an autopsy. Sherchan was resting at the base camp and waiting for a weather window to summit, skipping multiple acclimatisations because of his age.

Nearly 750 people are expected to try to climb the mountain during the small window of favorable weather that usually falls around the middle of May. The mountain is especially crowded this year, AFP reports, because this is the last chance for climbers who were forced off the mountain by the 2015 earthquake to use their extended permits, which cost thousands of dollars.

Sherchan is the second man to die this season. Ueli Steck, a renowned Swiss climber, died last month in a fall from a steep ridge during acclimatisation near Everest.