Meet the oldest recorded person to summit Mount Taranaki

New Zealand has a brand-new record-breaker – 90-year-old David Baker. He’s just become the oldest recorded person to summit Mount Taranaki.

“I’m also the slowest to summit and descend the mountain,” he joked, adding he completed it in 12 hours.

The previous record holder was Alfred Reed who summited in 1962, at age 86.

Baker made the climb on his 90th birthday, with a party of twelve others, including his wife Helen who's 71, their sons and grandsons.

“I’m very humbled I’m able to do it at my age. And my lovely wife was able to do it with me.

"I'm so proud of my boys, my two boys. And my two grandsons that were happy to do it with me."

Also joining them was Carl O’Sullivan, an experienced climber whose job it was to make sure David got to the top safely.

“And back down, getting back down is pretty important too!” laughed O’Sullivan.

“I have to give a lot of praise to Carl," Baker acknowledged. "He stuck with me for the whole 12 hours, he never left my side."

The 2518-metre maunga is a steep climb, with plenty of loose scoria.

“Coming down the scoria was a bit slippery," recalled O’Sullivan.

"It’s reasonably steep and lots of loose small stones. I was helping him arm and arm, and one time we fell over at the same time.

"We couldn't do anything about it and we both took the skin off our elbows. We were like, ‘You alright?’, 'Yep. You alright?’, ‘Yep.’ And we laughed, got up and carried on,” said O’Sullivan.

Baker also bruised his tailbone.

“The scoria is deadly coming done, it’s like small marbles on a hard service. And at 45 degrees, it’s extremely steep. Carl helped me up sheer bits of rock.

“There are a few steps that even for someone my age and flexibility are hard to get up,” O’Sullivan said.

“The last two or three hundred metres he [David] was getting pretty tired, so I gave him a little bit of a hand. But he did 99% of it on his own steam."

Baker said: “My wife calls it relentless climbing. It's more like climbing a staircase for six hours with steps missing.”

Despite the difficulty, Baker and O’Sullivan didn’t falter.

“He’s just a trooper, just carried on, the same pace the whole way up. He has a huge life story and I learned a fair percentage of that and it was really cool listening to it," said O’Sullivan.

It’s an incredible accomplishment, but Baker didn’t do it to enter the record books.

He did to raise money for Starship Children’s Hospital, which treats a huge volume of children – 140,000 patient visits every year – including highly complex cases.

“I’m so grateful my own family, including my grandchildren, are so fit and well. When I see those children in their beds it tears me up. And I’m so pleased to do it."

Baker has started a Givealittle page to help Starship reach its fundraising goal of $20 million this year.

“We’ve just ticked six thousand,” he beamed. Though he’s hoping it scales even greater heights.

Baker’s summiting is an incredible feat, but he’s done it before – at least a dozen times.

He grew up on the family farm at the foot of Taranaki Maunga. The first time he walked to the top was at age 12.

“When I was a child I followed men up cutting steps in the ice, it was in the mid-1940s. I recall it always had snow on it. Now there’s just a patch of ice in the crater, two or three football fields of ice.

"It just shows just how climate change has altered that mountain tremendously.”

He and wife Helen now live in Ngatea, but visit Taranaki regularly including on Baker’s 70th and 80th birthdays which he spent – you guessed it – climbing the mountain.

"There's no peaks near it, you do feel you're on top of the world. But you never stand on the utmost point, it's tapu for the Maori and I respect their customs."

O’Sullivan has summited 13 times but says the 90th birthday trip with David was by far the most memorable.

“I came back with a whole heap of new family," he said, admitting it was an emotional day.

“It really was. When we got to the top, I wanted him to summit first because it was all about him. There were big cheers and heaps of photos, it was awesome.

“And at the end, we crossed the finish line and started singing him happy birthday," said O’Sullivan.

“I said to him your record’s safe with me for at least another fifty years. Because when I turn 91 I want to beat it.”

Baker would like to go up Taranaki Maunga again for his 100th birthday but hopes to ascend differently. “People have joked that it should be in a helicopter,” he laughed.

“But I’ve thought about it, and If I stay well I might have a go at 95,” he declared.

“If he does, we’ll be sure to meet him at the top with a big happy birthday sign,” said O’Sullivan, who is in awe of David’s achievement.

“Just incredible. It’s something I’ll never, ever forget. Just really special to be a part of his climb.

“He’s just a legend.”