A 69-year-old Chinese climber has conquered Mount Everest on his fifth attempt after losing his feet on the mountain more than 40 years ago.
In 1975, when he was just 25, Xia Boyu was crippled by frostbite after he gave his sleeping bag to a sick teammate.
His feet were amputated as a result. In 1996, his legs were amputated above the knee due to a cancer battle.
Years later, he has become the second double-amputee to scale Everest, the first from the Nepalese side.
Before his fifth attempt, Xia told Time that success on Everest is something he would fight for his “entire life”.
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His son proudly took to social media to say his father had reached the summit.
“My Dad reached Everest at 8:26Nepal time!!! Has realized his 40 years dream!!!” Cloud Xia wrote on Chinese messaging platform WeChat, according to Time.
It’s believed Xia Boyu was being guided by veteran Nepalese mountaineer Mingma G. Sherpa.
Earlier this week, Australian climber Steve Plain, from Perth, made it into the record books as the fastest man to conquer the seven highest mountains in the world. Everest was his last.
Fighting climber ban
In December 2017 Nepal banned solo, visually-impaired and double amputee climbers from attempting its mountains – including Everest – to reduce accidents.
Six people died in attempts to climb Everest in 2017 and 600 were successful.
One of the dead was an 85-year-old Nepali attempting to regain his title as the oldest person to climb the mountain.
Nepal’s crackdown was met with some protest at the time with would-be summiteers indicating they would be ignoring the ban.
Xia Boyu success has placed the ban in the spotlight once more.
