11-year-old Climbs Denali :: June 30, 2008

I wrote about 11-year-old Jordan Romero earlier this year when the grade schooler became the youngest person to stand atop Aconcagua, a 22,841-foot peak in Argentina. Now it looks like the kid has kicked his way up Denali, summiting on June 19.

This summit brings Jordan a step closer to his goal of becoming the youngest person to climb the highest peak on each of the seven continents.

With this climb, Jordan tied the record for the youngest person to summit Denali. Jordan, along with his father, Paul, and stepmother, Karen, both accomplished adventure racers on Team SOLE, needed just seven days to reach the summit of Denali. (It takes many teams two weeks.)

Says Jordan: “The mountain was hard, there were lots of ropes and technical things to think about. There were definitely a few times that I was scared, but I wanted so badly to make it to the summit.”

In July 2006, Jordan began his quest for the Seven Summits as he climbed 19,340-foot Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, Africa. In April 2007, Jordan summitted Mt. Kosciuszko in Australia; in July he climbed Mt. Elbrus in Russia; in December, Aconcagua in Argentina.

Jordan’s sights are now set on Antarctica’s 16,000-foot Vinson Massif. He is selling t-shirts on his website, www.jordanromero.com, to raise money for the trip.

Hats off, little man!