ROCK CLIMBING NEWS ITEM

71 Year-Old To Set New Everest Record

TUESDAY, 18 APRIL 2006

A 71 year-old Russian climber is attempting to set a record for the oldest person to climb the Everest without the aid of Sherpas.

Boris Korshunov and his four-man team of Russian climbers started their ascent of the world's highest peak on April 12. It was made to coincide with the 45th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin's pioneering space flight, of which Korshunov was a part of the team which brought Gagarin to space.

Korshunov, who still works at the Russian Space Industry to this day, is an experienced climber, having done his first climb in 1954. Since then, he has climbed more than 70 peaks that are higher than 7000 m.

His team is led by Nickolay Totmjanin and they are accompanied by their fellow Russians Serguey Surmonin and Alexey Bolotov, all of which are also experienced climbers. Bolotov already climbed Everest twice on 1988 and 2002 while Totmjanin did it in 2003.

If you wish to follow their expedition, you may do so by clicking on this link.