73-Year-Old Climbs Everest

A 73-year-old Japanese woman has climbed Mount Everest. Excellent. But I bet she got to the top and then couldn't remember what she went up there for.

The retired office worker has broken a record and is now the oldest woman to reach the peak of the world's highest mountain.

That really rains in the parade of anyone who's planning to climb it now. "What's that? You want me to sponsor you to climb Mount Everest? Sponsoring to do what a 73-year-old woman can do? Why not just do a sponsored bingo?"

She's not even the oldest person to make the climb. That title still belongs to Napalese man Min Bahadur Sherchan, who climbed Everest when he was 76 years old in 2008.

Sounds like it's all pensioners up there. The top of Everest must be like a queue in the Post Office.

Tamae Watanabe reached Everest's highest point at 8,850 metres high (29,035ft) along with four other team members. It's the other members of the team I feel sorry for. They were Boy Scouts who were left thinking, "God, I thought she only wanted walking across the road."

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