73-year-old woman summits Everest

Katmandu, Nepal : A 73-year-old Japanese woman climbed to Mount Everest's peak yesterday, smashing her own record to again become the oldest woman to scale the world's highest mountain.

Tamae Watanabe reached Everest's 8,850-metre summit from the northern side of the mountain in Tibet with four other team members, said Ang Tshering of the China Tibet Mountaineering Association in Nepal.

Watanabe had climbed Everest in 2002 at the age of 63 to become the oldest woman to scale the mountain. She had retained the title until she beat herself yesterday morning.

May is considered the best month to climb Everest, when climbers get about two windows of good weather for their bid for the summit.

The oldest person to climb Everest is a Nepalese man, Min Bahadur Sherchan, who did it in 2008 at the age of 76.