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13-year-old becomes youngest to top Mount Everest
A 13-year-old from USA, Jordan Romero, became the youngest person atop the world’s highest peak. He reached the 8848 metres high summit early on Saturday morning with his father Paul and three Sherpa guides.
Records and Mt. Everest have become synonymous over the years. But Saturday was special for those interested in mountaineering trivia.
A 13-year-old from USA, Jordan Romero, became the youngest person atop the world’s highest peak. He reached the summit (8848 metres) early in the morning with his father Paul and three Sherpa guides.
It was a special day for India as well as Arjun Bajpayee (16) became India’s youngest atop Mt. Everest. Mountaineering legend Apa Sherpa too created history by scaling the peak for a record 20th time.
“Their dreams have come true. Everyone sounded unbelievably happy,” said a post on Jordan’s blog. Romero and his team used the treacherous northern route from Tibet to reach the peak.
The US teen broke the record set on May 23, 2001 by Nepal’s Temba Tshering when she was 16 years and 14 days old. “I am starting to feel this is going to happen..,” Romero had written before his final ascent.
With this feat, the eighth grader from California has successfully scaled all top peaks in seven continents since summiting Mt. Kilimanjaro (Africa) on July 22, 2006 when he was just nine.
The youngest Indian atop the peak Bajpayee and two other climbers left for the final ascent from South Col (Camp 1V-7950 metres) on Friday night and reached the peak at 6:33 am.
“Arjun who is 16 years, 11 months and 18 days old is officially the youngest Indian to have climbed Mt. Everest,” confirmed Ang Tshering Sherpa, president of Nepal Mountaineering Association.
The Indian teenager is part of an international expedition called Eco Everest Expedition 2010 led by Ang Sherpa who bettered his own record by reached the top for the 20th time at 8:34 am.
Apa nicknamed ‘Super Sherpa’ who reached the top of Mt. Everest for the first time on May 10, 1990, spent over an hour on the summit enjoying the view and clicking photos.
Twelve other members of the expedition including climbers from Finland and Mexico and another Indian, Mamata Shoda, scaled the peak on Saturday.
According to Asian Trekking, organisers of the expedition, the climbers brought back over 5000 kilograms of garbage and human waste collected over the years for proper disposal.
