To Try To Climb Everest At 85

85 Year Old Climber Dies Climbing Mount Everest

60 is the new 40 while 80 is the new 60 as age is only a state of mind

While diet, exercise, drugs, stem cells and surgery leave aging far behind

The idea works at sea level quite will

But some limits when a man is climbing into a high altitude hell

Something about living near the ocean and the wave washed sands
But not for a mountain climbing man named Min Bahadur Serchan

He climbed Mt. Everest in 2008 to set the record for the oldest at 75 to reach its top

Could retire to his rocking chair knowing no older man could on Everest summit be atop

Records are made to be broken and this one like all records shared the same fate

A desire of adventurers to break records is a very common trait

So here too when less than five years later at 80 yrs Yuichiro Miura at 80 the record broke

The gauntlet thrown down which his competitive fires were again stoked

When he learned the news, the urge to reclaim a record once again

Not a question of if only a question of when

At 85 years old with Everest winter weather approaching fast

Off to climb the mountain once again in what would prove to be his last

He never made in out of base camp where he died perhaps of cardiac arrest

Sometimes even with the mind of youth a man cannot the aging process also slow or best

His numerous grandchildren and great grandchildren will his passing grieve

But how rare and rewarding is a passing of a man doing in what he enjoys and  believes

Dying performing his favorite sport of climbing higher into the sky

Shortening the distance to the heavens when it was his time to die

Happy to be in another place looking down, a bit of envy knowing Miura will at 90 make his attempt

To climb and hold those people who act due to chronology and are rocking chair bound in total contempt

©May 6, 2017, Michael P. Ridley aka the Alaskanpoet 

Alaskanpoet for Hire, Poems to Admire

Poet Extraordinaire beyond Compare

The Perfect Gift All to Receive a Lasting Lift