Yūichirō Miura

Yūichirō Miura (三浦 雄一郎) is a Japanese skier and alpinist.

Early life
Miura was born in Aomori City in northernmost Tōhoku region of northeast Japan on October 12, 1932. His father, Keizo Miura, was a Japanese skier. Yūichirō was exposed to snow sports from the time he was a child, and placed in his first skiing competition during his second grade year in elementary school. He moved south with his family but found that he missed the snow and winter sports, prompting him to enroll at Hokkaido University. There, he continued to pursue skiing as a professional sport.

Career
Miura competed in speedskiing and downhill skiing. His advanced ability to ski, especially in the back-country, required him to reach high elevations by hiking, expanding the breadth of his skills to include wintertime Alpine mountaineering. Once he became a prolific mountain climber, Miura began challenging larger mountains and skied down many of them. While active in ski competitions, he competed for the average speed in the 100 meter section of the steep slope downhill. The world's highest record was established in Italy in July 1964 with a speed of 172.084 km/h.



Miura became the first person to ski on Mount Everest on May 6, 1970. Using a parachute to slow his descent, he skied down nearly 6,600 vertical feet from the South Col (elevation over 7,900 m (26,000 ft)), before falling for some 1,300 feet, and stopping just 250 feet from plunging into the bergschrund at the upper reaches of the Khumbu Glacier. This feat was documented in 1975, in the film The Man Who Skied Down Everest. The film won the Academy Award for best documentary, the first sports film to do so. He also succeeded in skiing downhill at seven of the highest peaks in Europe from 1978 to 1985.

In 2003 at the age of 70, Miura became the oldest person to reach the summit of Mount Everest, a record he twice broke, the last time at the age of 80 in 2013. Miura had heart surgeries for cardiac arrhythmia in 2006 and 2007.

Even though he was unable to complete the descent after reaching the top, and was airlifted from Advanced Base Camp at 6500 meters rather than descending to the Base Camp at 5364 metre (17,600 feet), his achievement is listed in the Guinness Book of Records. Famous alpinists, however, like Ken Noguchi, dispute Miura's achievement, arguing that a climb can not be called “complete” unless one walks all the way down the mountain.



In 2008 Miura described his diet as "healthy eating and organic food. He starts every day with a breakfast consisting of cooked rice, fermented soya bean, miso soup, eggs, and fish. Once a week he will treat himself to a 500g (18oz) steak." He said that he trained outdoors to recover from a serious skiing accident in which he broke five bones in his pelvis with 5 kg on each leg and 30 kg on his back for 5.5 mile walks, and also used a low oxygen room. Gota Miura, freestyle skier and alpinist, is one of his sons.