Shanthi Rajagopal
Heartening news for all IAS and IPS aspirants- Tenacity pays. Two teenagers prove to us that hard work, a never-say-die attitude and a determination to succeed will lead us to our goal within no time.
A 13-year-old American became the youngest climber to ever summit Mount Everest on Saturday May 22 2010, gaining renown for the feat while renewing controversy over a trend of young record-breaking adventurers.
Jordan Romero’s journey was tracked through GPS coordinates on his blog, logging his team’s ascent up Everest, which is 29,028 feet (8,847 meters) above sea level.
Before Jordan, the record was previously held by Ming Kipa of Nepal, who was 15 when she made the climb in 2003 with her brother and sister, and 16-year-old Temba Tsheri of Nepal.
Romero left for the peak from the Chinese side of the mountain after Nepal denied him permission on age grounds. Prior to his starting out, Romero, of Big Bear, California, said he wanted to climb Everest to inspire more young people to get outdoors. He feared that obese children were the future of America, the way things are going. He hoped to change that by doing what he did – climbing and motivational speaking.
He also had a desire to do something big in life, and he has succeeded beyond expectation. Jordan now has climbed six of the seven highest peaks on seven continents, known as the Seven Summits. His father Paul Romero reports that this was not an isolated vacation and that this was a lifestyle.
Romero’s family started tackling the Seven Summits in summer 2005. He was just 9 when they climbed 19,341 feet (5,895 meters) to the peak of Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. There is a debate about whether the tallest mountain in Oceania is Kosciuszko in mainland Australia or Carstensz Pyramid in Indonesia, so Romero and his family climbed both. The only peak left for him to climb after Everest is the Vinson Massif in Antarctica, which is 16,067 feet (4,897 meters). A trip there is planned for December 2010.
Jordan Romero called his mother, Leigh Anne Drake, 37, from a satellite phone when he reached the peak Saturday along with his father, stepmother and a team of three guides and told her proudly that he was calling from the top of the world.
Jordan decided in the fourth grade that he wanted to climb the tallest mountains on each of the seven continents. His mother and father are avid fans of the outdoors who took their son biking and hiking at an early age, but neither had experience with mountaineering until Jordan made his decision.
When he first wanted to go hiking, his mother and a friend took Jordan for a six-mile hike near their home. He whined and cried the entire time, she recalled, but when they got down, he wanted to keep training. They decided to support him. Jordan climbed the first peak on the list — Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania — when he was 9. He has since then climbed Mt. Kosciusko in Australia, Mt. Elbrus in Russia, Mt. Aconcagua in Argentina and Mt. McKinley in Alaska.
The eighth grader enrolled in independent study this semester to pursue the Everest climb. He took algebra books and writing journals with him.
Brent Bishop, 43, who has climbed to the top of Mt. Everest twice and whose father was on the first American team to reach the summit in 1963, said he was amazed by Jordan’s accomplishment but wary for other young climbers.
The main danger for a young person isn’t the climbing, but the altitude. Bishop feels that the planning and the weather cooperated to make the trip work out but the danger is for someone who is 13 who gets caught up high in bad weather and run out of bottled oxygen. Issues with cerebral impairment might then crop up.
Jordan’s group still has to make the trek down the mountain, a dangerous route that every year claims lives. After that, to complete his goal he has to climb one more mountain: Vinson Massif in Antarctica
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