An 82-year-old former Nepalese foreign minister has died in his attempt to become the oldest person to climb Mount Everest, a government official said Monday. Shailendra Kumar Upadhyaya died on Monday afternoon, hours after arriving at camp one in his record attempt, the official told AFP by telephone from Everest base camp. The cause of his death is not yet known.
Upadhyaya had said he wanted to raise awareness about the capabilities of elderly people by scaling the world's highest peak, which has claimed the lives of hundreds of mountaineers. "The former minister died at around 4:00 pm Monday," government official Tilak Pandey said.