Mt Whitney Zone Forums General Discussion 13 Year Old Jordan Romero Climbs Everest

SCG, I'm with you on that. I'm sure there are the rare barely-teens who have the maturity and psychological make-up to do these things. Fortunately, it appears Jordan (and Jessica - slipped it in before you could, wagga!) are the lucky few whose abilities have kept pace with their record-setting goals.

I read a lengthy piece on Jordan last year (Backpacker, Outside, Nat Geo Adventure - one of those). The kid appears to have his head screwed on straight and seems to have come by this goal on his own - at least according to him. What made me a bit dubious was his father's emphatic insistence - several times in the article - that there was no parental pressure involved. I hope that's the case, anyway.

But even with Jordan's goal taken at face value, where is the line - or is there one? When a 16 YO did it, who could have dreamed that a 13 YO would follow suit shortly afterwards? Will we be reading about some 10 or 11 YO wunderkind attempting the same thing a few years from now? There's a very real threshold somewhere soon - it's simple math, right?

Aconcagua, Kili and Elbrus are relatively tame, as serious mountaineering goes - if the weather's good, the only real concern is altitude - but Denali, Vinson and Everest are no joke. Plenty of excellent mountaineers have died on Everest and Denali, and the only reason so comparatively few have died on Vinson is that it's damn near imossible to get to, regardless of money or prestige. It takes money, timing and lots of luck just to get to the basecamp slope, let alone climb the monster and come down in one piece. No sherpas or regular fixed lines in Antarctica! Snagging the 7 Summits is as much about Vinson logistics as anything else - and that's where Jordan needs to head for his final summit. I wish him luck - and will keep my fingers crossed.