An 82-year-old Nepalese former foreign minister has died trying to become the oldest person to climb Mount Everest.

Shailendra Kumar Upadhyaya died on Monday afternoon, hours after arriving at Camp One, an official said, adding that the cause of his death was 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 current record holder is Min Bahadur Sherchan, who scaled the mountain three years ago at the age of 76.

Around 3,000 people have climbed Everest since Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay became the first people to conquer the 8,848 metre (29,028 ft) peak in 1953.

May is considered the best time for climbing in the Nepal Himalayas and around half a dozen people, most of them Nepalese, have reached the top so far this year.

Hundreds more are on the mountain waiting for the right conditions to launch their attempt on the summit.



