Woman, 73, oldest to scale Everest

A 73-year-old Japanese woman has climbed Mount Everest, smashing her own record to again become the oldest woman to scale the world's highest mountain. Tamae Watanabe launched her final assault on the treacherous upper slopes of Mount Everest from an altitude of 8,300 metres on Friday night, said Ang Tshering Sherpa of the China Tibet Mountaineering Association. Around 7am the next day, Watanabe, along with Japanese mountaineer and photographer Noriyuki Muraguchi and three other team members, reached Everest's 8,850-metre-high summit from the northern side of the mountain in Tibet. "Watanabe and the other team members are in good condition and are on their way back to the base of the mountain," Sherpa added. Watanabe left Katmandu for the mountain last month but had to reschedule her summit plans twice because of fickle weather that was plaguing the upper slopes of the mountain. She initially wanted to push for the summit on Tuesday but strong winds around the upper slopes forced her to reschedule the plan. The retired office worker had climbed Everest in 2002 at the age of 63 to become the oldest woman to scale the mountain. Source: AP / The Times of Japan Published May 20, 2012