Kathmandu: A 70-year-old French climber is aiming to become the oldest person to climb Mount Everest without supplemental oxygen and at the same time find a new, safer route.
Marc Batard wants to explore a new way around the lethal Khumbu Icefall that all climbers must cross to reach the world’s highest peak from the Nepal side.
The treacherous, ever-shifting expanse of glacial ice that requires climbers to navigate crevasses over rickety ladders has claimed more than 40 lives.