American boy, 13, descends after Everest record
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KATHMANDU , MAY 23 -
The youngest person to have conquered Mount Everest, 13-year-old American Jordan Romero, arrived safely back at Camp 2 on his descent from the world's highest peak, his website said Sunday.
Jordan, from California, was "currently flat on his belly knocked out" following the climb to the summit early on Saturday, according to the team's website that said he had secured the record "with style and flair".
The teenager, who climbed with his father, is three years younger than previous record holder Temba Tshering of Nepal.
Over 50 mountaineers reached the top on Saturday, among them Apa Sherpa, who broke his own world record by summiting for the 20th time.
Jordan's supporters and fans posted congratulations on his website (jordanromero.com), but the expedition has attracted criticism from some mountaineers, who said he was too young to undertake such a dangerous climb.
"At 13, one lacks the mental and physical maturity that comes with age to tackle climbs in such altitude," Ang Tshering Sherpa, president of the Nepal Mountaineering Association, told AFP Sunday.
"In this case, it was a big risk."
Authorities in Nepal do not grant climbing licences for Everest to anyone under the age of 16 so the team -- led by Jordan's father Paul, a paramedic -- climbed from the Tibet side.
Thousands of people have reached the summit since Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay became the first people to conquer the 8,848-metre (29,028-foot) mountain in 1953.
Record-breaking Apa Sherpa, 50, has earned the moniker "super Sherpa" for the apparent ease with which he scales the mountain.
He had hoped to carry Hillary's ashes to the top on his latest expedition but was warned against doing so by local priests, who worship the mountain as sacred and said it would bring bad luck.
Apa dedicated his 2010 expedition to the impact of climate change on the Himalayas and led a team of climbers who plan to bring several tonnes of rubbish off the mountain.
The summit season on Everest begins in late April and May when a small window between spring and the summer monsoon offers the best conditions for making the ascent.
Posted on: 2010-05-23 05:39
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