Metro

Peak tragedy for Maloney

Manhattan Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney’s husband, Clifton, died on a 27,000-foot mountain he had just summited on the Tibet-Nepal border.

“I’m the happiest man in the world. I’ve just summited a beautiful mountain,” were the adventurer and millionaire investment banker’s last words, according to congressional aide Barry Nolan.

Clifton, 71, died in his tent at 23,000 feet, where he had retreated to sleep after his successful ascent of Cho Oyu — “The Turquoise Goddess” — 12 miles east of Mount Everest in the Himalayas.

He died after waking up feeling tired, Nolan said.

Clifton, an avid climber, hiker and marathoner, got to the frigid, windswept summit — a peak he had failed to reach in an earlier attempt — Friday morning, or Thursday night New York time, sources said.

The Navy veteran and retired investment banker was the oldest American to reach the peak, the sixth highest in the world, his family said.

Carolyn, his wife of 33 years, was at a dinner Thursday night when she got a text message from him with the news that he had reached the summit, a source said.

“She cheered and told the table, and they all made a toast to him,” the source said.

Clifton kept himself in top shape and had run in the New York City Marathon 20 times. He’d conquered numerous peaks, including Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa, Mount McKinley in Alaska, Mount Rainer in the Pacific Northwest and Aconcagua, the highest peak in South America.

“He was supposed to give a talk this November to the Alpine Club about his trip up Cho Oyu,” a friend said. “Now that will become a memorial service for him.”

The former Goldman Sachs exec was climbing with a professional guide, Marty Schmidt, and a Sherpa, sources said.

His wife and two daughters got the grim news at 5 a.m. yesterday in New York and were “very shaken” at the news, Nolan said.

The congresswoman, first elected to her seat in 1992, recently made news by mulling a possible 2010 primary run for upstate Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand’s Senate seat.

Aides last night waited at Maloney’s door to turn away workers who’d been invited to a party to thank those involved with her “exploratory” Senate campaign, said Maloney friend Liz Abzug.

Maloney, 61, and daughters Christina, 29, and Virginia, 22, were with Clifton’s elderly mother at her home in a tony Philadelphia suburb last night, sources said.

The family was waiting for information from State Department officials on when and how the body would be transported home.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton had called to say she personally would try to negotiate the tricky issue of getting an airlift out of Tibet, said a Maloney source. Chinese officials restrict air traffic around the disputed territory.

President Obama also called to offer support and condolences, as did Mayor Bloomberg, family sources said.

Additional reporting by Kirsten Fleming, Geoff Earle and Post Wire Services

gotis@nypost.com