Jordan Romero (born July 12, 1996) is an American

mountain climber Mountaineering or alpinism, is a set of outdoor activities that involves ascending tall mountains. Mountaineering-related activities include traditional outdoor climbing, skiing, and traversing via ferratas. Indoor climbing, sport climbing, an ...

who was 13 years old when he reached the summit of

Mount Everest Mount Everest (; Tibetan: ''Chomolungma'' ; ) is Earth's highest mountain above sea level, located in the Mahalangur Himal sub-range of the Himalayas. The China–Nepal border runs across its summit point. Its elevation (snow heig ...

. Romero was accompanied by his father, Paul Romero, his step-mother, Karen Lundgren, and three

Sherpa Sherpa may refer to: Ethnography * Sherpa people, an ethnic group in north eastern Nepal * Sherpa language Organizations and companies * Sherpa (association), a French network of jurists dedicated to promoting corporate social responsibility * ...

s, Ang Pasang Sherpa, Lama Dawa Sherpa, and Lama Karma Sherpa. The previous record for youngest to climb Everest was held by

Ming Kipa Ming Kipa ( ne, मिङ किपा शेर्पा) (born 1988) is a Nepalese Sherpa woman who held the record as the youngest person to climb Mount Everest from 2003 to 2010. She reached the summit on May 22, 2003 when she was 15 years old, ...

Nepal Nepal (; ne, नेपाल ), formerly the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal ( ne, सङ्घीय लोकतान्त्रिक गणतन्त्र नेपाल ), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mai ...

who was 15 years old when she reached the summit on May 22, 2003. Upon successfully hiking the

Vinson Massif Vinson Massif () is a large mountain massif in Antarctica that is long and wide and lies within the Sentinel Range of the Ellsworth Mountains. It overlooks the Ronne Ice Shelf near the base of the Antarctic Peninsula. The massif is located ab ...

in December 2011 at the age of 15 years, 5 months, 12 days, Romero became the youngest climber in the world to complete the

Seven Summits The Seven Summits are the highest mountains of each of the seven traditional continents. Climbing to the summit of all of them is regarded as a mountaineering challenge, first achieved on 30 April 1985 by Richard Bass. Climbing the Seven Summits a ...

(the highest mountains on each of the continents), a title previously held by George Atkinson. After this experience, Romero wrote a novel for children called ‘''No Summit Out Of Sight’''.

Mountains climbed

Romero is now trying to climb the highest point in each of the 50 US states.The Acorn - Youngest climber of the Seven Summits to speak in T.O.
/ref> He had already climbed Denali in June 2008. (see also

Peak bagging Peak bagging or hill bagging is an activity in which hikers, climbers, and mountaineers attempt to reach a collection of summits, published in the form of a list. This activity has been popularized around the world, with lists such as 100 Peaks ...

(Climbing list))

Personal life

Romero grew up in

Big Bear Lake Big Bear Lake is a reservoir in the San Bernardino Mountains, in San Bernardino County, California, United States. It is a snow and rain fed lake, having no other means of tributaries or mechanical replenishment. At a surface elevation of , it ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

, and currently resides in Salt Lake City, Utah. He was born to Paul Romero and Leigh Anne Drake.

Historic climb

Prior to climbing Everest, Romero had already climbed five of the seven highest peaks in the world in his desire to scale the tallest peaks on the seven continents (counting two for Oceania). He finished the seven summits with Mount Vinson in Antarctica at age 15. Before climbing Everest, Romero's highest peak was

Aconcagua Aconcagua () is a mountain in the Principal Cordillera of the Andes mountain range, in Mendoza Province, Argentina. It is the List of highest mountains on Earth, highest mountain in the Americas, the highest outside Asia, and the highest in the ...

, in elevation. His group chose a northern route out of Tibet and carried a

GPS tracking device A GPS tracking unit, geotracking unit, satellite tracking unit, or simply tracker is a GPS device, navigation device normally on a vehicle, Asset management, asset, person or GPS animal tracking, animal that uses satellite navigation to deter ...

and

satellite phone A satellite telephone, satellite phone or satphone is a type of mobile phone that connects to other phones or the telephone network by radio through orbiting satellites instead of terrestrial cell sites, as cellphones do. The advantage of a sa ...

. Along the way to the top, Romero conducted an interview from an intermediate

base camp Mountaineering or alpinism, is a set of outdoor activities that involves ascending tall mountains. Mountaineering-related activities include traditional outdoor climbing, skiing, and traversing via ferratas. Indoor climbing, sport climbing, an ...

18,700 feet above

sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical datuma standardised g ...

. Upon reaching Mount Everest's

summit A summit is a point on a surface that is higher in elevation than all points immediately adjacent to it. The topography, topographic terms acme, apex, peak (mountain peak), and zenith are synonymous. The term (mountain top) is generally used ...

, a

Skype Skype () is a proprietary telecommunications application operated by Skype Technologies, a division of Microsoft, best known for VoIP-based videotelephony, videoconferencing and voice calls. It also has instant messaging, file transfer, deb ...

interview was accomplished and Romero also called his mother, who had been following the climb on a map which included GPS coordinates, pictures and video.

Criticism

Before he climbed Mount Everest, there was some criticism over whether a 13-year-old boy should be allowed to attempt this. David Hillebrandt, medical adviser to the

British Mountaineering Council The British Mountaineering Council (BMC) is the national representative body for England and Wales that exists to protect the freedoms and promote the interests of climbers, hill walkers and mountaineers, including ski-mountaineers. The BMC ...

, questioned whether Romero was mentally mature enough and then went on to say, "It is totally against the spirit of true mountaineering. This sounds like it's about mass marketing, money and it's verging on child abuse. Nowadays, people are effectively being winched up (the mountains), using ropes that Sherpas have put in for them. It will all be done for him (Romero). He's a token passenger." Because Nepal does not issue permits to people under 16 years of age, Romero and his team decided to climb from the Tibet side. On June 10, 2010, the Lhasa-based Chinese Tibet Mountaineering Association (CTMA), the official channel through which climbers must apply for permission to attempt peaks in Tibet, announced future age restrictions for all those attempting Everest from the north.

Book

After Romero climbed Mount Everest, he and Katherine Blanc wrote a book ''The Boy Who Conquered Everest: The Jordan Romero Story''. At the end of 2014 Romero with Linda LeBlanc wrote another book ''No Summit out of Sight: The True Story of the Youngest Person to Climb the Seven Summits''.

References

External links

Official website

Flickr

XDance Film

Children's book: The Boy Who Conquered Everest
{{DEFAULTSORT:Romero, Jordan 1996 births Living people American mountain climbers American summiters of Mount Everest Summiters of the Seven Summits American male writers Sportspeople from San Bernardino County, California Writers from California People from Redlands, California Sportspeople from Salt Lake City People from Big Bear Lake, California