Sunday, May 23, 2010 Youngest
to climb Mount Everest - Jordan Romero sets world
record
MOUNT EVEREST, Nepal-Tibet border -- Jordan
Romero, 13, from the ski town of Big Bear, California,
near the San Bernardino Mountains, has climbed Everest, which
is 29,028 feet (8,847 meters) above sea level - setting the
new world record for the Youngest
to climb Mount Everest. Photo: At just 13, Jordan Romero became
the youngest
person to climb Mount Everest, surviving the extreme weather
that has claimed the lives of 179 climbers over the years,
and air so thin that bottled oxygen is needed. / AP
(enlarge
photo)
He reached Everest's summit with the help
of his father, stepmother and three Sherpa guides. "I just
want to do something big. It's all about the experience. I
just happen to be 13," he said before embarking on his adventure.
The
previous world record for the Youngest
to climb Mount Everest was previously held by Ming
Kipa of Nepal, who was 15 when she made the climb in 2003
with her brother and sister.
Jordan
Romero left for the peak from the Chinese side of
the mountain after Nepal denied him permission on age grounds,
according to nepalnews.com.
It is climbing season on Everest, and so
far this year 186 people have reached the summit, but two
have died trying. In all, more than 2,700 climbers have scaled
the 29,028ft of ice and rock since it was first conquered
by Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay in 1953.
Before starting out, Romero, of Big Bear,
California, said he wanted to climb Everest to inspire more
young people to get outdoors.
"Obese children are the future of America, the
way things are going," he said on April 9 in Kathmandu. "I
am hoping to change that by doing what I do: climbing and
motivational speaking."
With a smile, he added: "I am doing
this a little for myself, too, to do something big."
Jordan
Romero, 13, has climbed to the top of the highest
peaks on six of the seven continents, beginning at age 9.
He was just 9 when they climbed 19,341 feet (5,895 meters)
to the peak of Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania.
Jordan Romero 7 Summits
July 2006: Mount Kilimanjaro, 5895 meters,
Africa.
July 2007: Mount Elbrus, 5642 meters, Europe.
December: 2007 Aconcagua, 6962 meters,
South America. June 2008: Mount Denali,
6194 meters, North America. September:
2009 Carstenz Pyramid, 4884 meters, Oceania. May
2010: Everest, 8850 meters, Asia.
December 2010: Planned trip to Vinson Massif,
4897 meters, Antarctica.
"This is not an isolated vacation," said
Paul Romero, Jordan's father, before the two embarked up Everest
in Nepal. "This is a lifestyle."
Jordan
Romero reached the Everest summit with a group of
mountaineers, including a Nepalese Sherpa named Apa who broke
his own world record by climbing Everest for a 20th time.
The only peak left for him to climb after
Everest is the Vinson Massif in Antarctica, which is 16,067
feet (4,897 meters). A trip there is planned for December.
