92-Year-Old Italian Begins Mt. Everest Climb
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MILAN, Italy — A 92-year-old Italian explorer started to climb Mt. Everest on Sunday, Milan University said. He is the oldest mountaineer to attempt to scale the world’s highest peak.
Back in 1954, Prof. Ardito Desio was the first to reach the top of the only slightly lower K-2 mountain in Kashmir, which is 28,250 feet high.
“Every time I come back to city life I want to flee, to find a way out among simple people,” he told colleagues at Milan University before leaving Italy.
The university’s secretariat, which was in contact with Desio’s base, said he is leading a 45-person scientific expedition up 29,028-feet Everest.
Asked by the Milan newspaper Corriere della Sera whether the climb would not jeopardize his health, Desio retorted:
“I’m in perfectly good health, and a huge enthusiasm is pushing me on. If the weather turns bad, no problem--I’ll travel back down again to Katmandu (in Nepal).”
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