Man aged 92 becomes oldest person to hike Grand Canyon rim to rim

A 92-year-old who recently became the oldest person to cross the Grand Canyon rim-to-rim on foot says he is proof that it is never too late to try something – because he waited until his mid-70s to start leading what he considers a healthy life.

“I began living a healthy lifestyle really at age 76,” Alfredo Aliaga Burdio – a Spanish-born resident of Berlin – told the Guinness World Records site in an interview.

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Aliaga added that he attributed his longevity to four factors: watching what he eats, drinking mainly water, walking 30 minutes daily and “sleeping in the dark of the night for eight hours”.

Guinness’s interview with Aliaga came after the organization recognized that the nonagenarian’s mid-October trek across the Grand Canyon made him the oldest person to complete the 24-mile (38.6km) journey on foot. And indeed, most of the longevity tips that he supplied are among eight health measures that can slow the body’s ageing process, according to data from 6,500 adults that the American Heart Association compiled and published in November.

Aliaga had hiked the Grand Canyon in Arizona several times before his rim-to-rim undertaking in October. He got the idea to attempt to become the oldest to finish the trek on foot after reading about John Jepkema, who had clinched that record at age 91 in March.

“I admired [him] immensely,” Aliaga said to Guinness. “I knew that I was only a few months younger than Mr Jepkema had been and thought that I had a great shot at setting a new record.”

Aliaga trained for his record attempt by walking eight miles (12km) daily. Heavy snowfall and damage from water when it subsequently melted forced him to cancel a previously scheduled attempt.

But then in October, he embarked on the record-setting hike with his daughter, North Carolina resident Anabel Aliaga-Buchenau; her husband, Jurgen Buchenau; and two companions who signed up as volunteer witnesses, as UPI.com reported. They started at the North Rim trailhead, taking 11 hours and 15 minutes on the first day to reach Phantom Ranch, where there are dormitories and cabins for hikers.

On the second day, it took 10 hours to reach the South Rim trailhead from Phantom Ranch and clinch his record, as Guinness recounted.

Aliaga said the river waters, the rocks and the general geology of the Grand Canyon were usually what gripped him most about hiking there. But for his record-setting journey, what stood out to him was how supportive the people he encountered on the hike were.

He said every person with whom he crossed paths with “cheered … and was happy” for him. Among them were firefighters from Tucson, Arizona, who gave him a patch making him an honorary member of their department as a token of support.

Aliaga singled out his volunteer witnesses, Julian Coiner and Peter Todd, for gratitude.

“Can you believe that two people who would usually cross the canyon in eight hours agreed to be witnesses, walked at my speed, and were unwavering in their support?” Aliaga remarked. “[Both] are truly unusually kind and wonderful people.”

Aliaga said he was considering pursuing another age-related record by hiking the Anconcagua mountain in Argentina; Ecuador’s inactive Chimborazo volcano; or the active Ecuadorian volcano Cotopaxi. But he is also contemplating other more leisurely hikes of the Grand Canyon during the upcoming year.

“But I have to see how I am doing then,” Aliaga said to Guinness. “I am getting older.”