70-year-old Japanese scales Mount Everest

updated 1:58 p.m. ET May 17, 2006

TOKYO - A mountaineering company said a 70-year-old Japanese man on Wednesday became the oldest person to scale Mount Everest, the world's tallest mountain. However, Guinness World Records said it couldn't immediately confirm the claim.

Takao Arayama, age 70 years, 7 months and 13 days, was the oldest person ever to scale the 29,035-foot peak, according to Toshinori Koya, who heads Tokyo-based Adventure Guides, which planned the climb.

The Guinness World Records Web site says the record has been held by another Japanese, Yuichiro Miura, who reached the famed peak at the age of 70 years, 7 months and 10 days, on May 22, 2003.

Arayama, who climbed the mountain as part of a five-member team, reached the summit at 10:45 a.m. local time (0500 GMT) Wednesday morning, Koya said.

He said team leader Kenji Kondo, 43, contacted the company by satellite phone several hours after reaching the peak.

Arayama descends to lower camp
Arayama, a corporate management consultant, has now safely descended to a lower camp on the mountain and is in good health, Koya said.

Arayama's wife, Kyoko, said she got word from Adventure Guides of Takao's feat at about 4 p.m. local time (0700 GMT) Wednesday.

"I was just happy to hear he was safe," she said from their home in Kamakura, about 30 miles southwest of Tokyo.

"We are very proud to have helped make another climber's dream come true — that is, to climb Mount Everest," Koya said. "The record is more of a bonus."

Everest straddles the Nepal-China border. Arayama's team climbed the mountain from the Chinese side, according to a blog or Internet journal kept by Kondo and his supporters on the Adventure Guides Web site.

The blog said Arayama started climbing seriously in his 40s and has also climbed the 20,320-foot Denali in Alaska, North America's highest peak, according to the blog.

Kate White, a spokeswoman for London-based Guinness World Records, said Wednesday, "We have not had any report of this record. If he (Arayama) is older, we would look forward to announcing a new Guinness world record.

In order to do so, she said the company would need his birth certificate, photographs, witness statements and a log book of his climb.

Koya said his company would help Arayama verify the record as soon as the climber gets back to Japan, though no date had been set for his return.

First Filipino to the top
Also on Wednesday, Philippine adventure racer Leo Oracion reached Everest’s summit, expedition organizers said, claiming he is the first Filipino to scale the world's highest peak.

"The Philippine eagle has landed," Oracion, 32, was quoted saying in a radio message to Arturo Valdez, leader of the First Philippine Mount Everest Expedition.

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