Skiing Mt. Everest

May 6, 1970: Japanese extreme skier Yuichiro Miura became the first person to ski on Mt. Everest. And amazingly, he didn't die. The stunt was filmed and was the subject of a 1975 documentary, The Man Who Skied Down Everest. Check out the clip below.

Miura later became the oldest person to reach the summit of Everest, climbing it at the age of 70 and again when he was 80.

Burlington Free Press - May 12, 1970

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Posted By: Alex - Tue Nov 21, 2017
Category: Sports | 1970s

Comments

I remember this guy. He skied the first 1.5 miles and slid on the ice for the last quarter. The guy had guts to do that on unknown territory and flat lighting conditions.

Posted by KDP on 11/21/17 at 09:55 AM

Seven died so they could get two minutes of video of a meaningless stunt. What's wrong with these people?

If someone wants to do stupid stuff, fine, but why put others at risk for your fun/self-promotion/proving you're an idiot?

iirc, there are about 200 corpses on Everest -- motivated, daring, adventurous people who laid down and died where it's too dangerous for anyone to recover their bodies.

I am so glad I've never been that ambitious.

Posted by Phideaux on 11/21/17 at 02:35 PM

We watched this documentary (not long after the event) in school, but the more relevant reason I have affection for this story is that a tabloid headline for it featured in Private Eye's collection of newspaper errors and absurdities "The Bumper Book of Boobs". The headline read: "Jap With Parachute Skis Down Everest On One Leg At 93mph And Lives".

Posted by Weaver on 11/21/17 at 08:49 PM

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