13-year-old has high hopes to be youngest to scale Everest

A BOY of 13 is hoping to become the youngest to climb Everest.

Californian Jordan Romero will attempt the ascent to 29,035 feet with his father, an experienced climber who has helped train his son for top-level mountaineering.

When Jordan was only nine, a school mural of the world’s highest seven summits inspired him to want to climb them all.

“I told my dad about it and he didn’t say no. He just explained the difficulties and what I’d have to do. We started training right away,” said Jordan, who flew to Nepal last night.

At age 10, he became the youngest American to summit Kilimanjaro, Africa’s highest peak. He has since checked off four of the tallest peaks, including Alaska’s Mount McKinley, which many climbers consider to be a more technical climb than Everest.

Despite his penchant for tall mountains and thin air, friends and family describe Jordan as unusually serious for a 13-year-old. He said he understands the risks of Everest, which kills climbers almost every year.

“Mountain climbingrequires a lot of mental training and making smart decisions. It’s a metaphor for life,” he said.

His planned Everest ascent is making the mountaineering community think hard about how young is too young to climb such a dangerous mountain.

Jordan’s father Paul said he wants nothing more than to make his son’s dreams come true.

“It’s his quest and we’re just along for the ride,” said Romero, a helicopter paramedic.

“We may or may not reach the summit this time. It might be a dress rehearsal.”

Romero and girlfriend, Karen Lundgren, are adventure racers, competing in week-long endurance tests that combine biking, climbing, paddling and climbing through wilderness areas around the world.

Jordan’s mother, Leigh Anne Drake, said she supports her son but she also sees her ex-husband’s influence in the project.

“He went to his dad’s for a weekend and came back with a new goal, to be the youngest to reach the top of Everest,” she said. “I told him, ‘If you’re going to do it, you have to foot the bill. But if you set a record, you can get sponsorship’.”

The trio’s Everest expedition is costing $150,000 (€110,000). Jordan, his father and Lundgren will be making the ascent with three sherpas. He is taking homework to Nepal.

The current record holder for the youngest to climb the peak is Temba Tsheri of Nepal who was 16 and lost five fingers to frostbite during his bid in 2001.