Local Everest climber not old enough
Salt Lake woman has “oldest” title
Kay LeClaire, 60, of Spokane is not the oldest U.S. woman to climb 29,035-foot Mount Everest, as reported in The Spokesman-Review on Saturday.
Carol Masheter of Salt Lake City, UT, was 61 in May 2008 to claim the title of the oldest U.S. woman on top of the world, according to The Himalayan Database, a recognized authority on climbing statistics for Everest and other Himalayan peaks.
Other “oldest to climb Everest” distinctions verified with the database staffers on Tuesday:
— Oldest man: Min Bahadur Sherchan of Nepal, 76 yrs-340 days, in 2008.
— Oldest woman: Tamae Watanabe of Japan, 63, in 2002.
— Oldest U.S. citizen: Bill Burke of Costa Mesa, CA, 67 in 2009.
Note: Nils Antezana, 69, a naturalized U.S. citizen reached the Everest summit in spring 2004, but he died during the descent.