Everest, oldest and youngest summiteers. The oldest person ever to reach the summit was a 64- year-old American physician, Sherman (“Sherm”) Bull. He was joined at the top by his son, Bradford (“Brad”) Bull (33). The pair were only the second father and son team to summit at the same time. Sherman Bull, whose age surpasses by one year the previous oldest summiteer, Toshio Yamamoto, a Japanese climber aged 63 in May 2000, said this had been the fifth time he had gone to Everest. When he finally made it all the way to the top, his success as the oldest summiteer didn’t really sink in immediately. However, getting to the top was “a dream come true.” The youngest Everest summiteer was a 16-year-old Nepalese school boy, Temba Tshiri Sherpa, who had unsuccessfully tried to scale it from the Nepalese side in the spring of 2000 and received severely frostbitten fingers, some of which had to be amputated. Now he was back again, this time on the Tibetan side, as his own one-man team but with some help from others on the mountain. Temba later reported he was a bit frightened by the three dead bodies he encountered in one area along the route. He also had difficulty doing things like putting on his harness due to his damaged fingers. However, he had “a great feeling” when he got to the top. Now he plans to concentrate on his studies—he is in ninth grade—rather than to climb again soon, but he could change his mind if someone were to give him “a good chance.”

Elizabeth Hawley