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13 Year Old Jordan Romero Climbs Everest
#4474 05/21/10 09:37 PM
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NBC News has just announced that 13 Year old USA climber
Jordan Romero has climbed Mt Everest = youngest ever to do it !!

Re: 13 Year Old Jordan Romero Climbs Everest
CMC2 #4475 05/22/10 04:14 AM
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That is just unbelievable. You have to wonder what age is too young for the attempt, but I read that Jordan is 5'10" and 165 lbs, so physiologically he's closer to an adult than his age would indicate.

Re: 13 Year Old Jordan Romero Climbs Everest
Bulldog34 #4482 05/22/10 04:23 PM
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Originally Posted By: Bulldog34
That is just unbelievable. You have to wonder what age is too young for the attempt, but I read that Jordan is 5'10" and 165 lbs, so physiologically he's closer to an adult than his age would indicate.


I agree with you BD about the size for his age... but how many times have we said/heard that the mountain... any of them... is mostly mental.

So.. at the age of 13 he has conquered 6 of the 7 Summits... the 7th is planned for this December... what next? I have a 13 year old son.. he still thinks girls have cooties! How does a mind that young deal with the enormity of what he's done. How well did he hold together while on the mountain.. I've read accounts of Everest... the mental anguish and trama that climbers go through is beyond anything I can probably imagine.

I know alot of people are saying that so long as his parents support him that it's all good... I just don't agree....

Re: 13 Year Old Jordan Romero Climbs Everest
SoCalGirl #4483 05/22/10 07:29 PM
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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.

Re: 13 Year Old Jordan Romero Climbs Everest
SoCalGirl #4484 05/22/10 07:29 PM
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SoCalGirl....I absolutely agree with you. Everything went right, but what if it hadn't? Jon Krakauer's book, Into Thin Air is a testement to what can go wrong and how many times things can go wrong on Everest.

p.s. I think I was told your kid does have cooties! Take care of him, love him and they go away naturally.


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Re: 13 Year Old Jordan Romero Climbs Everest
Bulldog34 #4485 05/22/10 11:04 PM
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Originally Posted By: Bulldog34
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.


Talking about Kili being "easy", the Boston Bruin's Norris Trophy winning defenseman Zdeno Chara bailed about 1,000' short of the summit last summer. The NHL Network televised a documentary on expedition. There was no mention of AMS problems.

I'm sure Herschel Walker could have day hiked it. wink

Re: 13 Year Old Jordan Romero Climbs Everest
quillansculpture #4486 05/23/10 07:37 AM
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This is a general response to no one person in particular, which has been building during the months I have daily followed Jessica Watson's recently completed circumnavigation, and which now seems to be moving into the 13-year-old Everest discussion.

Not all 13-year-olds (or 16-year-olds, in the case of Jessica) are the same (true of any age, for that matter).
You can say "what if things hadn't gone right" about any age group and doing any endeavor.
The bottom line is the amount of risk willing to be taken and the ability to handle that risk. With a minor, obviously that risk involves parents more than a non-minor. But give the parents some credit for knowing the make-up of their kids better than we do.
As one example of many, what about the Olympics? Most of the participants there are in their teens. In some Olympic sports, 16, for example, is considered "old". There is risk in any of those sports, yet we cheer them on precisely because we laud their courage and will power (backed by a whole lot of advance preparation -- as is also true with Everest and solo circumnavigations) to compete and maybe win (or at least complete the event and do well). Why should mountain climbing (even Everest) be any different? Different goal; different set of risks.

I think we make too much out of age. There are people of all ages who would have no business doing mountain climbing in their current state. Rather than make judgment calls based on age, why not make them on ability (including mental and physical, etc.), or better yet, why make them at all? Why not just enjoy and appreciate the accomplishment of someone who has set out to achieve a goal? Maturity is not determined so much by age as it is by experience and how responsibility is handled. For some, that experience and learning how to responsibly handle challenges, comes at a younger age than "normal".

If Jessica Watson's recent circumnavigation proved anything, it proved that. Her statement at the conclusion of her welcome home ceremony was on point:

Quote:
People don't ... expectations ... they don't think you're capable of these things. They don't realize what young people, what 16-year-olds, and what girls are capable of. And it is amazing that, when you take away those expectations, what you can do and what you can achieve.

Here is about a one-minute video highlight of her homecoming a little over a week ago, including the above excerpt -- worth watching.

CaT


If future generations are to remember us with gratitude rather than contempt, we must leave them more than the miracle of technology. We must leave them a glimpse of the world as it was in the beginning, not just after we got through with it.
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Re: 13 Year Old Jordan Romero Climbs Everest
CaT #4488 05/23/10 10:35 AM
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Also posted on the Jessica thread:

Some comments in the Christian Science Monitor.


Verum audaces non gerunt indusia alba. - Ipsi dixit MCMLXXII
Re: 13 Year Old Jordan Romero Climbs Everest
wbtravis #4489 05/23/10 01:27 PM
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Originally Posted By: wbtravis
Talking about Kili being "easy", the Boston Bruin's Norris Trophy winning defenseman Zdeno Chara bailed about 1,000' short of the summit last summer. The NHL Network televised a documentary on expedition. There was no mention of AMS problems.

I'm sure Herschel Walker could have day hiked it. wink


wb, guess that says quite a bit about Jordon since he was 9 when he did Kili! And I was careful to quailify that "tame" comment as being in relative difficulty to the more technical of the 7 Summits. Actually, none of the 7S are really technical - they're all walk-ups of varying class 1-3 difficulty except Everest's Hillary Step, and that section has had fixed ladders for a number of years. Take the sherpas out of the picture for Everest - and their fixed lines - and I bet the summits each year would drop 80% or more - and the fatalities would skyrocket. Hillary had Tenzig Norgay. Mallory and Irvine went solo. 'Nuff said.

Anyway, except for that little Aussie afternoon stroll (no offense wagga), any of the low-end 7S would kick our butts pretty good, even though none of them have the technical intensity of a K2 or Annapurna. The Vinson Massif is actually the lowest of the 7S (not counting Kosciuzko) at 16K' but, needless to say, it's just a bit chillier in Antarctica at that elevation than it would be here. Also, the extreme latitude makes the O2 content more like climbing a 20,000-plus peak (similar effect at Denali).

And since you brought Herschel into this, and thereby Georgia, bet'cha didn't know that the Vinson Massif was named after Carl Vinson, a Georgia senator who was an early proponent of Antarctic exploration. That'll win you a ton of bar bets!

Re: 13 Year Old Jordan Romero Climbs Everest
CaT #4490 05/23/10 02:27 PM
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Growing up in the middle of the Hollywood Community (12 of my relatives were actors, one even starring in over 60 movies, as well as TV series, etc.), I cannot help but wonder how much the "kids" want to do what they do, or how much they are pushed to do it. I grew up with too may kids who were pushed into TV, who didn't want anything to do with it. One of them, the son of one of the greatest comedians ever, hates his father and is estranged from his family.

What Jordan did is an incredible accomplishemnt....beyond incredible, and kudos to him. He may be a very driven 13 year old, though I don't remember many driven 13 year olds when I was in school, and yes, even with me being around all those children of actors. My girlfriend at the time, had her own TV series. That was 30 years ago....and she is still working out the problems she had with her parents.

As far as maturity, there are reasons why the courts have decided what age a child must be to be considered a mature person. Those ages are not arbitrary, but have been decided upon over the decades and of course in some circumstances have changed.

You may consider the case of Johnny Strange, the 17 year old high school student who is the youngest (so far) to have climbed the highest peaks on all 7 continents, including Everest. People may consider him "mature", which of course is defined knowing how to act in different circumstances as having the ability to make swift and correct decisions.
If that definition is true (and of course you can look up your own), then Johnny does not meet the criteria for maturity because of his latest attempt caught on video of him "car surfing" at 50 mph on top of a friends BMW in Malibu. Not only did that endanger his own life, he could have easily caused an accident, could have hurt someone else, or at the least caused the driver of the car behind him to kill Johnny if he fell off the vehicle.
Of course, no one was hurt, but both Johnny and the driver of the BMW were arrested.
I guess I'm showing Johnny as an example of someone who is not mature, but still completed impossible feats. I hope that he doesn't believe his life is incomplete without the addition of daring acts and life threatening endevours.

Even after all that I have stated, I need to admit that I am in awe of the accompishments of these "children". It is amazing and beyond my belief. I'm sure these kids are more mature than the average child, but I hope they get advice from their parents that is for their own good and not for the good of their parents. And who's to say that being the best at something, getting tremendous accolades and admiration means anything when it comes to maturity. I still remember my accountant telling me in the late 1980's, early '90's, about this wonderful kid who would someday become one of the greatest golfers ever. He gushed about how far beyond his years this kid was, his incredible maturity, his wonderful family, etc. Well, that kid did grow up to arguably be the greatest golfer ever, but I don't think Elin would argue for his maturity.


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Re: 13 Year Old Jordan Romero Climbs Everest
quillansculpture #4491 05/23/10 03:21 PM
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Originally Posted By: quillansculpture
Well, that kid did grow up to arguably be the greatest golfer ever, but I don't think Elin would argue for his maturity.


Joe, absolutely, unequivocally, the line of the day!

I may be wrong - happens more than I like, dammit - but I think we've seen the youngest person to climb Everest for many, many years to come. Thirteen! The kid still hasn't even had his first date yet (presumably), and is too young to try out for varsity sports! At sixteen, the previous Everest record, an argument could be made for "almost-adult". Thirteen is an order of magnitude (or two) away from sixteen, and is still a kid no matter how you slice it and dice it. Would a child with no "teen" in their age even be allowed to try some of these peaks by the permitting authorities?

I'll readily admit that thirteen today is different from when I was thirteen, and in a lot of ways. Modern day 13 YOs may be more "grown up" than a generation or two past, but I wouldn't say they're necessarily more mature. Maturity is, when all is said and done, the ability to comprehend, reason, and unilaterally make the correct decision/choice, particularly when the pressure is on. The only way Jordan was able to get the backing and permitting necessary for some of these climbs is because his father, an experienced mountaineer and high-altitude specialist, accompanied him on each one. When/if Jordan bags Vinson with his dad, there will be two new entries in the 7 Summits rolls.

Fortunately, Jordan appears to be the excessively rare exception to young teen behavior. Impressive kid, grounded in reality, big for his age, and did these peaks in the right kind of order so that he had experience to draw upon as each one got tougher. That's mainly why I can't see a 12 or 11 YO managing this feat - mountaineering in difficult circumstances demands experience to keep you reasonably safe. What are the chances of some exceptional tween setting out to conquer the 7S, or Everest, without a highly-experienced mountaineering parent or other close family member to guide him/her along the way and watch out for them? "Hey Mommy, when I've finished my hour of Disney Channel, can I go climb Denali?" I just don't see it. I bet Jordan's record stands for a long, long time.

Re: 13 Year Old Jordan Romero Climbs Everest
Bulldog34 #4493 05/23/10 04:14 PM
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Quote:
I bet Jordan's record stands for a long, long time.

I'll bet you're right.

CaT


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- Lyndon Johnson, on signing the Wilderness Act into law (1964)
Re: 13 Year Old Jordan Romero Climbs Everest
CaT #4494 05/23/10 05:56 PM
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Originally Posted By: CaT
As one example of many, what about the Olympics? Most of the participants there are in their teens. In some Olympic sports, 16, for example, is considered "old". There is risk in any of those sports, yet we cheer them on precisely because we laud their courage and will power (backed by a whole lot of advance preparation -- as is also true with Everest and solo circumnavigations) to compete and maybe win (or at least complete the event and do well). Why should mountain climbing (even Everest) be any different? Different goal; different set of risks.


CaT, you're defintely right about the age average in some individual sports such as gymnastics and swimming, and certainly in the Xtreme sports. Even some of the team sports see high-school age kids come in and make an immediate impact without going through the college ranks (where allowed). Basketball is the most noticeable, with the likes of Kobe Bryant, Dwight Howard and LeBron James each being selected #1 overall in the draft out of high school at age 17 or 18. Happens in baseball a fair amount too, although it tends to be with pitchers usually.

Sixteen and seventeen YO phenoms are not all that rare nowdays, but I can't place even a fifteen YO phenom in any sport other than gymnastics, swimming or the Xtreme stuff (tennis maybe?), let alone a thirteen YO. Are there any? At least in anything other than chess? I'm drawing a blank. I think that just illustrates what a tremendous thing Jordan has accomplished - and in what is arguably the most expensive individual "sport" on the planet (yachting and racing are team sports, right?). I can't think of another where you spend thousands getting to/from the competition site on your own dime, more thousands for gear and equipment each time out of the chute, and then happily forking over more tens of thousands to your host for the privilege of being allowed to possibly die (priceless). Thank God for sponsors and financially secure parents! smile

And that last line got me to pondering: is climbing/hiking the deadliest, most dangerous sport/recreation there is? Might be worth looking into. Nah - my wife would just get uptight.


Last edited by Bulldog34; 05/23/10 06:19 PM. Reason: Last thought
Re: 13 Year Old Jordan Romero Climbs Everest
Bulldog34 #4495 05/23/10 06:13 PM
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Several Chinese Olympic female gymnasts were certified to be 16 years-old by the Chinese government. Actually 14.


Verum audaces non gerunt indusia alba. - Ipsi dixit MCMLXXII
Re: 13 Year Old Jordan Romero Climbs Everest
wagga #4496 05/23/10 06:15 PM
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Originally Posted By: wagga
Several Chinese Olympic female gymnasts were certified to be 16 years-old by the Chinese government. Actually 14.


Works the other way around for Cuban and Puerto Rican Little League World Series teams . . .

Re: 13 Year Old Jordan Romero Climbs Everest
Bulldog34 #4497 05/23/10 06:24 PM
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In the ancient Greek Olympics, all the athletes performed naked. Could clear up some issues?


Verum audaces non gerunt indusia alba. - Ipsi dixit MCMLXXII
Re: 13 Year Old Jordan Romero Climbs Everest
wagga #4498 05/23/10 06:48 PM
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Originally Posted By: wagga
In the ancient Greek Olympics, all the athletes performed naked. Could clear up some issues?


Wild guess here, but I suspect viewership would go up.

But I don't think Russia or Germany would be happy.

Re: 13 Year Old Jordan Romero Climbs Everest
Bulldog34 #4502 05/23/10 08:22 PM
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Nor any of the Farawayistan countries.


Verum audaces non gerunt indusia alba. - Ipsi dixit MCMLXXII
Re: 13 Year Old Jordan Romero Climbs Everest
quillansculpture #4506 05/24/10 08:05 AM
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Originally Posted By: quillansculpture
p.s. I think I was told your kid does have cooties! Take care of him, love him and they go away naturally.


LOL... not all rumors are true.. but you're right, he probably does have them! But what about the teenage girl... do her issues clear up in time too? wink

In reply to the numerous "he seems rather mature for a 13 year old".. I will agree with that. I read the article last year in Backpacker (I think.. or maybe Outdoor)... and he came across as a very articulate child who has a goal.

It also appeared to me as though he had a very driven father (despite the "It's not us it's him pushing this" comments from his father). I can understand a kid having a goal... and it should be applauded and encouraged. However... I know many adults who don't understand the significance of undertaking so extreme, let alone a child understanding it. And even if he did, by the time he got around to Everest (with 5 or 6 other summits under his belt)understand for the most part... how much pushing and goading did the father have to do before hand to get him to that point. I know many "sports" parents (applies to Scouts too)... I've heard it all before... how much of it did Jordan hear?

Re: 13 Year Old Jordan Romero Climbs Everest
wbtravis #4517 05/24/10 03:38 PM
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Originally Posted By: wbtravis
I'm sure Herschel Walker could have day hiked it. wink

Herschel could day hike it today. Have you seen what phenomenal shape he is still in?He is a freak.

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