KATHMANDU: An 80-year-old Japanese man who began the year with his fourth heart operation became the oldest conqueror of Mount Everest on Thursday, a feat he called “the world’s best feeling” even with an 81-year-old Nepalese climber not far behind him.

Yuichiro Miura, a former extreme skier who also climbed the 8,850-metre peak when he was 70 and 75, reached the summit at 9:05am local time, according to a Nepalese mountaineering official and Miura’s Tokyo-based support team.

It was a moment Japanese news agency Kyodo captured on video from 10km away, using a camera crew at 5,500 meterselevation on another mountain.

“We have arrived at the summit,” Miura said in a radio transmission to Kyodo from the world’s highest point. “80 years and 7 months. ... The world’s most incredible mountaineering team had helped me all the way up here.”

Miura and his son Gota made a phone call from the summit, prompting his daughter Emili to smile broadly and clap her hands in footage shown by Japanese public broadcaster NHK. “I made it!” Miura said over the phone. “I never imagined I could make it to the top of Mount Everest at age 80. This is the world’s best feeling, although I’m totally exhausted. Even at 80, I can still do quite well.”—AP