A 69 year-old double amputee reached the summit of Mount Everest from the Nepal side on Monday morning, on his fifth attempt to climb the world’s highest peak. 
 
 Chinese national Xia Boyu reached the summit at 8:26 am Nepal time, according to a post by his son Cloud Xia on the Chinese messaging platform WeChat. 
 
 “My Dad reached Everest at 8:26 Nepal time!!! Has realized his 40 years dream!!!” Cloud Xia wrote. 
 
 Xia senior lost both of his legs below the knee amputated after suffering frostbite in a failed Everest expedition when he was just 25. He is now reportedly descending the mountain. 
 
 He is being guided by Mingma G. Sherpa, a veteran Nepalese mountaineer, who successfully climbed the world’s 14 highest mountains on first attempt. An additional 11 Sherpas are providing support. 
 
 Xia Boyu, a 69 year-old double amputee from China, sitting in his hotel room in Kathmandu prior to his fifth attempt to summit Mount Everest, on April 4, 2018. Casey Quackenbush—TIME 
 
 “I love the mountain,” Xia told TIME prior to his climb, “I will fight for it my entire life.” 
 
 Xia’s success casts fresh light on the Nepalese government’s failed attempt to ban certain groups of climbers from the mountain. 
 
 In an effort to improve safety, and to halt overcrowding on Everest, the government last December issued a ban on climbers who are disabled, blind, below the age of 16, or intending to climb solo. An outcry ensued, and Hari Budha Magar, a former Royal Gurkha Rifles soldier and a double amputee, launched a legal action, citing a violation of the United Nations’ convention. In response, the Supreme Court put the ban under temporary review, creating a window for Xia to make his attempt. 
 
 Xia lost his legs after his first attempt on Everest in 1975, when he was part of the Chinese Mountaineering Team, after he lent a teammate his sleeping bag. 
 
 He previously attempted Everest in 2014, 2015, and 2016. In 2014, climbing season was cancelled due to an avalanche. His attempt in 2015 was also cancelled following a 7.8 earthquake that shook Nepal and triggered more avalanches on the mountain. In 2016, Xia got to within 300 feet of the summit when a blizzard forced him to retreat. 
 
 New Zealander climber Mark Inglis was the first double amputee to ever summit Everest from the Tibet side in 2006. Santiago Quintero, a climber from Ecuador who is missing parts of both his feet and listed as a double amputee in the Himalayan Database, summited from the Nepal side in 2013. In 2017, Jeff Glasbrenner, an American single amputee, summited in 2017. 
 
 Over 500 climbers from 38 different expeditions are attempting Everest this season, according to the Himalayan Times. 

 Double Amputee Summits Everest Decades After Losing Feet In Failed Attempt 
 
 Enlarge this image toggle caption Prakash Mathema/AFP/Getty Images Prakash Mathema/AFP/Getty Images 
 
 It was roughly 43 years ago that Xia Boyu made his first attempt to scale Mount Everest. The Chinese climber had been in his mid-20s, serving in an expedition that came close to the peak before it unraveled under the force of high-altitude storms. 
 
 Xia lost his feet to frostbite during that ill-fated effort. Two decades later, he would also lose both legs beneath the knee to lymphoma. But all the while, the double amputee held onto his dream of returning to — and conquering — Everest. 
 
 And on Monday, Xia finally achieved that dream. Xia, his fellow team members and the Sherpas supporting them summited the mountain early in the morning, according to Imagine Trek and Expedition, the group leading the effort. 
 
 Enlarge this image toggle caption Prakash Mathema/AFP/Getty Images Prakash Mathema/AFP/Getty Images 
 
 He is at least the second double amputee climber to summit Everest, after New Zealand's Mark Inglis achieved that feat in 2006. 
 
 But at the start of the year, it appeared the moment would never come for Xia. Shortly before the New Year, Nepal's government sought to ban double amputees, along with solo and blind climbers, from scaling all of the mountains within its borders unless they could obtain a doctor's written permission. 
 
 As NPR's Lauren Frayer reported at the time, the new regulations were intended "to keep people safe and also to create jobs for local guides and Sherpas" — but those rules were tossed just months later by Nepal's high court for discriminating against people with disabilities. 
 
 After the ruling, Xia wasted no time arranging another attempt — his fourth in about five years, according to Agence-France Presse. The news agency reports that canceled climbing seasons stymied his plans in 2014 and 2015, and that he came within 200 meters of the summit in 2016, before "bad weather forced him to turn back." 
 
 In the meantime, avalanches and deadly accidents made for a steady stream of grim news from the mountain. 
 
 Still, shortly before heading back to Everest base camp last month for a fifth try, he told AFP that nothing had changed for him. 
 
 "Climbing Mount Everest is my dream. I have to realise it," he said. "It also represents a personal challenge, a challenge of fate." 
 
 Now, obstinate fate finally relented before that determination. 

 Image copyright AFP Image caption In 1975, Xia Boyu handed his sleeping bag to a suffering teammate - and lost both feet to frostbite 
 
 A Chinese climber who was crippled by frostbite on Everest more than 40 years ago has scaled the summit at the start of this year's climbing season. 
 
 In 1975, Xia Boyu lost his feet after giving his sleeping bag to a sick teammate during a high-altitude storm. 
 
 Now aged 69, he became the second double amputee to scale Everest - and the first ever from the Nepalese side. 
 
 Australian Steve Plain, meanwhile, set the record for the fastest climb of the highest mountains on seven continents. 
 
 Plain's achievement also features a story of overcoming physical challenge, coming four years after he broke his neck in a surfing accident. 
 
 'A challenge of fate' 
 
 The storm that caused Xia's frostbite struck in the "death zone" above 8,000m (26,200ft) and stranded his team for three nights, not far from the summit. 
 
 As a result, he needed to have his feet amputated. Then, in 1996, his legs were amputated above the knee as he battled lymphoma. 
 
 Despite his injuries, he never abandoned the notion of reaching the summit. 
 
 "Climbing Mount Everest is my dream," he told AFP news agency in April. "I have to realise it. It also represents a personal challenge, a challenge of fate." 
 
 After the disastrous 1975 climb, he made three more attempts, in 2014, 2015 and 2016. The 2016 attempt brought him close to the summit before a blizzard set in. 
 
 However, a ban on climbers like Xia almost ended his attempts. 
 
 Nepalese authorities moved last year to ban double amputees - along with blind and solo climbers - from attempting to reach the summit. 
 
 The authorities said the new rules were a safety measure but they were struck down by the courts earlier this year as discriminatory. 
 
 On Monday, supported by a team of Sherpa guides, Xia reached the summit in what the Himalayan Times says is the first successful double amputee climb from the Nepal side. 
 
 It also makes him only the second double-amputee to ever reach the summit of the world's highest mountain. Mark Inglis, of New Zealand, became the first when he reached the summit in 2006. 
 
 Inglis also lost his limbs to frostbite in a climbing accident, after spending two weeks in an ice cave sheltering from a mountain storm. 
 
 'Hangman's fracture' 
 
 Steve Plain also took advantage of the first day possible to reach the summit, setting his four-month speed record for the seven continents. 
 
 Both Plain and Xia's teams had already begun their climb when Sherpa guides affixed ropes to the summit, opening the final leg of the route for the climbing season. 
 
 That meant that Plain could reach his seventh mountain peak on his seventh continent in just 117 days - shaving nine days off the previous record. 
 
 The seven summits Mr Plain scaled are, in order of completion: 
 
 Vinson, Antarctica (4,892m/16,066ft) 
 
 Aconcagua, South America, (6,962m/22,840ft) 
 
 Kilimanjaro, Africa (5895m/19,340ft) 
 
 Carstensz Pyramid, Australasia (4884m/16,020ft) 
 
 Elbrus, Europe (5642m/18,510 ft) 
 
 Denali, North America (6,190m/20,310ft) 
 
 Everest, Asia (8,848m/29,030ft) 
 
 Plain was surfing in Western Australia in the summer of 2014 when a wave dumped him, head first, into the sand. He suffered a broken neck or "hangman's fracture" and said doctors had told him they were not sure if he would ever walk again. 
 
 "Three and a half years ago I was lying in hospital with a broken neck and at that time set myself the goal," he wrote on Facebook after reaching the summit. 
 
 Plain has also been using his record attempt to raise money for charities the Surf Life Saving Association and SpinalCure Australia - two groups he has close associations with after his own injuries.
– Two major conquests have kicked off the Everest climbing season. Setting out before Sherpas finished securing the season's ropes to the summit, double amputee Xia Boyu of China reached Everest's peak Monday on his fifth attempt, reports Time. It was a climb 43 years in the making. The 69-year-old lost both his feet to frostbite when he lent his sleeping bag to a sick team member on his first attempt to scale the mountain in 1975, reports the BBC. Years later, both of his legs were amputated below the knee as he battled lymphoma. Still, Xia never gave up hope of setting foot on the highest point on Earth, and though an avalanche and earthquake put an end to planned climbs in 2014 and 2015, he made it to 300 feet from Everest's summit in 2016 before a blizzard forced his team to retreat. "Climbing Mount Everest is my dream. I have to realize it," Xia said ahead of Monday's victory, which came after a recent ban on disabled climbers was struck down as discriminatory, per NPR. While Xia has been described as the second double amputee to scale Everest after New Zealand's Mark Inglis ascended from the Tibet side in 2006, Time reports Ecuador's Santiago Quintero also managed the feat from the Nepal side in 2013. Meanwhile, Steve Plain of Australia bested the 126-day record for the fastest climb of the highest mountains on seven continents. With his Everest finale Monday, Plain completed the feat in 117 days, despite having broken his neck in a surfing accident four years ago. "I was lying in hospital … and at that time set myself the goal," he says, per the BBC.