An 85-year-old Nepalese man who was trying to reclaim the title of oldest person to climb Mount Everest died at a base camp late Saturday, officials said.

Min Bahadur Sherchan became known as the oldest climber to reach Everest’s 8,850-meter-high summit in 2008, when he was 76. Five years later, however, the title went to Yichiro Miura of Japan, who was 80.

Nepal does not allow anyone under age 16 to try to climb Everest, but it does not set an upper age limit for climbers.

Mountaineering officials, including one at the base camp, said the likely cause of death was cardiac arrest.

Sherchan told The Associated Press in April that he had been training for months for his second conquest of Everest. He was not a professional climber, but had worked as an apple farmer, construction worker and hotel manager in Kathmandu.  

He was the second climber to die this week in the vicinity of Everest. Famed Swiss climber Ueli Steck, known for his rapid mountaineering ascents, died April 30 when he fell on nearby Mount Nuptse while preparing for an ascent of Everest.
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