Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board 13 Year Old Jordan Romero has climbed Mt Everest

NBC News has just announced that 13 Year old USA climber
Jordan Romero has climbed Mt Everest to become the youngest
ever to achieve this. He is from Big Bear Lake CA.

You can track him here...
http://edn1.esri.com/everest/Default.html

hmm. to think i go to school with him. there was a big gathering today 6/5/10 in big bear his hometown

I watched the interview on the Today show on NBC and the kid seems very well adjusted and polite. He stressed to young kids how much work and how many months of training it took for his journey. Both of his parents went with him to the summit and I really felt good for the kid. I didn't see any huge ego or boasting, just a great kid.

Yeah, but now what? At 13 ... that's one heck of a long denouement from here.

I heard on both the local and national news that the kid became the youngest person to complete the 7 Summits. He's down in Antarctica. Nice gift to himself.

Yeah the story actually made the front page of ESPN's web site this morning:

Jordan Romero breaks summit record

Congratulations to the young man, and his dear old dad.

I selected these two quotes from my collection - they seem appropriate for the circumstances of his dream and his youth:


The summit wasn’t the end of the journey, it was the culmination – the cure for the thing that had gnawed inside him for so long. What folly to think that anyone climbs...for the views, or the thrills, or the bragging rights, or, vaguest of all, because it is there. What’s there is this: the chance to be worthy of your own dreams.
Nick Heil, Dark Summit, page 137


I experienced…joy for the vision and hope of the unknown and sorrow in realizing how many adventures there are to seek, and how pitifully short is the life in which to seek them.
Frank Smythe, The Kanchenjunga Adventure, page 176

And he'll remain the youngest person for the foreseeable future. Neither China nor Nepal give climbing permits to people under 16 any more. China changed its rules precisely because of Romero.

It was actually not until a Nepalese Sherpa announced that he would try to find an 11 or 12-year old boy to climb Everest to regain the record (previously held by a Napalese climber) that the age limit (18 - 60) was put into effect. It does allow for someone outside the age limit to get a permit if they get a medical certificate stating that they are fit to climb Everest.