is a Japanese skier and

alpinist Alpine climbing () is a type of mountaineering that uses any of a broad range of advanced climbing skills, including rock climbing, ice climbing, and/or mixed climbing, to summit typically large routes (e.g. multi-pitch or big wall) in an alpi ...

, who, in 2013, became the oldest person to summit

Mount Everest Mount Everest (), known locally as Sagarmatha in Nepal and Qomolangma in Tibet, is Earth's highest mountain above sea level. It lies in the Mahalangur Himal sub-range of the Himalayas and marks part of the China–Nepal border at it ...

(at the age of 80).

Early life

Miura was born in Aomori City in northernmost

Tōhoku region The , Northeast region, , or consists of the northeastern portion of Honshu, the largest island of Japan. This traditional region consists of six prefectures (): Akita, Aomori, Fukushima, Iwate, Miyagi, and Yamagata. Tōhoku retains ...

of northeast Japan on October 12, 1932. His father, Keizo Miura, was a Japanese skier. Yūichirō was exposed to snow sports from the time he was a child, and placed in his first skiing competition during his second grade year in elementary school. He moved south with his family but found that he missed the snow and winter sports, prompting him to enroll at

Hokkaido University , or , is a public research university in Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan. Founded in 1918, it is the fifth-oldest government-authorised university in Japan and one of the former Imperial Universities. The university finds its roots in Sapporo A ...

. There, he continued to pursue skiing as a professional sport.

Career

Miura competed in speedskiing and downhill skiing. His advanced ability to ski, especially in the back-country, required him to reach high elevations by hiking, expanding the breadth of his skills to include wintertime Alpine mountaineering. Once he became a prolific mountain climber, Miura began challenging larger mountains and skied down many of them. While active in ski competitions, he competed for the average speed in the 100 meter section of the steep slope downhill. The world's highest record was established in

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

in July 1964 with a speed of 172.084 km/h. Miura became the first person to ski on Mount Everest on May 6, 1970. Using a parachute to slow his descent, he skied down nearly 6,600 vertical feet from the

South Col The South Col is a col between Mount Everest and Lhotse, the highest and fourth-highest mountains in the world, respectively. The South Col is typically swept by high winds, leaving it free of significant snow accumulation. Since 1950 (when Tibe ...

(elevation over , before falling for some , and stopping just from plunging into the

bergschrund A bergschrund (from the German for ''mountain cleft''; sometimes abbreviated in English to "schrund") is a crevasse that forms where moving glacier ice separates from the stagnant ice or firn above. It is often a serious obstacle for mountaineer ...

at the upper reaches of the

Khumbu Glacier The Khumbu Glacier () is located in the Khumbu region of northeastern Nepal between Mount Everest and the Lhotse- Nuptse ridge. With elevations of at its terminus to at its source, it is the world's highest glacier. The Khumbu Glacier is follo ...

. This feat was documented in 1975, in the film ''

The Man Who Skied Down Everest ''The Man Who Skied Down Everest'' is a Canadian documentary about Yuichiro Miura, a Japanese alpinist who skied down Mount Everest in 1970. The film was produced by Crawley Films' "Budge" Crawley and directed by Crawley and Bruce Nyznik. Miur ...

''. The film won the Academy Award for best documentary, the first sports film to do so. He also succeeded in skiing downhill at seven of the highest peaks in Europe from 1978 to 1985. In 2003 at the age of 70, Miura became the oldest person to reach the summit of

, a record he twice broke, the last time at the age of 80 in 2013. Even though he was unable to complete the descent after reaching the top, and was airlifted from Advanced Base Camp at 6500 meters rather than descending to the Base Camp at , his achievement is listed in the ''

Guinness Book of Records ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a British reference book published annually, listi ...

''. Famous alpinists, however, like

Ken Noguchi is a Japanese mountaineer and environmental activist. His father was a diplomat, so he lived in the U.S., Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Japan. He was often bullied because he was half-Japanese. In 1999, at the age of 25, he became the youngest person ...

, dispute Miura's achievement, arguing that a climb can not be called “complete” unless one walks all the way down the mountain. Yuichiro Miura and Yoichi Masuzoe 200711

Yuichiro Miura and Yoichi Masuzoe 200711

Gota Miura is a Japanese freestyle skier. He competed at the 1994 Winter Olympics and the 1998 Winter Olympics. His father, Yūichirō Miura, attempted to be the first person to ski down Mt. Everest, and three times set the record for the oldest person t ...

, freestyle skier and alpinist, is one of Miura's sons.

References

External links

*
Team Miura's website (Japanese and English)
*
Team Miura press release of May 26 2008 Summit The Telegraph - Meet Yuichiro Miura, the man planning to conquer Everest at 90
{{DEFAULTSORT:Miura, Yuichiro Japanese mountain climbers Japanese male ski mountaineers Summiters of the Seven Summits Japanese summiters of Mount Everest 1932 births Living people Academic staff of Aomori University Aomori High School alumni Sportspeople from Aomori (city) Skiers from Aomori Prefecture 20th-century Japanese sportsmen

Early life

Career

See also

References

External links