Ex-Alberta politician​ gets title of Oldest Canadian to summit Mount Everest

Image of Mount Everest: Wallpapaer

​​#JohnOldring, #Alberta, #Canada, #MountEverest, #YuichiroMiura, #Japan, #MinBahadurSherchan, #Nepal, #KhumbuIcefall, 
 
Toronto, June 13 (Canadian-Media): John Oldring, ex-Alberta politician, aged 64, from Calgary, Alberta had become the oldest Canadian to climb Mount Everest on May 25, media reports said.

From other countries, there were older persons to climb Everest. Yuichiro Miura of Japan, 80, reached the summit in 2013.

Min Bahadur Sherchan from Nepal had managed to summit the mountain in 2008 when he was 76.

Oldring came to know that he was the oldest Canadian to summit Everest only after coming down.

“We probably had one of the best days of the year to summit on,” Oldring told the Red Deer Advocate, 680News reports said.

 “Any climb that I’ve been on, I always known I’ll be oldest. So my theory is I make sure I always train the hardest, train the smartest and climb as smart and efficiently as I can. I don’t want to be the person who holds the team back and I never have been,” said Oldring, 680News reports said.

For Oldring it was the second Everest attempt.

In 2015, his team, when climbing the Khumbu Icefall on the Nepali slopes of Mount Everest, was struck by an earthquake of 7.8-magnitude that left all of them in a total whiteout.

Although the eight-member team survived, at least 22 people died, down at the base camp, and many were injured, but he was determined to try again.

So far seven people, said Oldring, had died on Everest.

After reaching the mountain top they could see the curvature of the earth through clear, blue skies, said Oldring.

But due to poor visibility, while standing on the top of Everest, they couldn’t see the other mountains.

“I hadn’t reached the summit yet. The job wasn’t done,” said Oldring, 680News reports said..

After a nine-hour climb from Camp, his team reached the summit at 8:15 a.m.

“It was fabulous. Everest is so big. You just can’t appreciate the scale at all. It’s truly amazing,” said Oldring, 680News reports said..

Oldring and his team had climbed the top of Everest very quickly and although they were not short of time, they knew the peak was a death zone, Oldring said, and spent only about 15 minutes on top of the world.

“But…you always have to remind yourself a successful climb is getting down the mountain, not just getting up it. So you don’t spend a lot of time up there,” said Oldring, 680News reports said..
 
(Reporting by Asha Bajaj)
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