Kathmandu , Nepal ( CNN ) -- A 73-year-old Japanese woman on Saturday became the oldest woman to climb Mount Everest breaking her own 10-year-old record . Tamae Watanabe reached the top of the 8,848-meter ( 29,028 feet ) peak at 7 a.m , according to Ang Tshering , of the China Tibet Mountaineering Association . Watanabe climbed Everest from the nothern slope in Tibet-China and started on her final part of her climb at 8:30 p.m. Friday leaving the 8,300-meter staging area with three sherpas . The final push to the summit was made at night because it becomes very windy after mid-morning . In 2002 , at the age of 63 , she reached the summit from the southern slope in Nepal . Everest lies on the border of Nepal and Tibet-China . The oldest person to climb Everest is Nepali national Min Bahadur Sherchan who achieved the feat at the age of 76 in 2008 . The youngest person is American teenager Jordan Romero from California who reached the summit in 2010 when he was 13 . In 2011 , an 82-year-old man died on the mountain while trying to set the record of being the oldest person to reach the summit . So far about 4,000 people have climbed Everest .
Tamae Watanabe also climbed the mountain in 2002 when she was 63 . The oldest person to climb the Everest was 76 . The youngest person was a 13-year-old American .