A French couple this week became the first to parachute from Mount Everest hours after a 15-year-old schoolboy became the youngest person to summit the world's tallest peak, a sponsor said today.
Mr Bertrand and Mrs Claire Roche, from Grenoble, summited Everest from the Tibetan side on May 22nd and parachuted down, Thamsherku Trekking managing director Mr Sonam Sherpa told AFP.
A few hours earlier, Nepalese high-school student Mr Temba Tsheri became the youngest person to reach the 8,848-metre (29,028-foot) summit in his second attempt on the mountain, Mr Sonam said.
Mr Roche led Mr Tsheri's expedition.
Mr Tsheri got to within 22 metres of the summit in May last year but had to turn back suffering severe frostbite and snow-blindness. He lost three fingers.
"This was the first time that a couple had parachuted down from the Earth's tallest pinnacle in a parachute on Tuesday," Mr Sonam said.
Before leaving for Mount Everest in March, Mr Tsheri told AFPthat last year's ordeal had not destroyed his ambition.
"I want to climb the world's tallest summit for national vanity and for the pride of young people in the world to show that we are also capable of doing the hard job as done by elder people," he said.
The previous youngest climber to conquer Mount Everest was a 16-year-old Nepalese boy, Mr Shambhu Tamang, who reached the summit in 1973.
AFP