15-year old mountaineer Jordan Romero is back in the press today, thanks to a story at CNN.com about his upcoming expedition to Mt. Vinson, the tallest peak in Antarctica. Romero made headlines last year when he successfully climbed Everest at the age of 13, sparking a lot of debate in the mountaineering community about how young is too young for some of these big peaks. Now, he has just one mountain remaining on his Seven Summits list, and he'll try to remove that final hurdle in just a few weeks time.Jordan began his quest to become the youngest climber to complete the Seven Summits when he was just 10 years old, knocking off Kilimanjaro in Africa. Since then, he has gone on to climb Aconcagua in South America, Denali in Alaska, Elbrus in Europe, Carstensz Pyramid in Indonesia, Kosciuszko in Australia, and of course Everest in Asia. Now, only the 4892 meter (16,050 ft) Vinson remains.
According to Jordan's website, he'll leave for Punta Arenas, Chile on December 12th, where he'll no doubt have to put the finishing touches on his preparation for the climb while waiting for a proper weather window for ALE to deliver him to Base Camp. With any luck however, he'll be there by mid-December and will spend Christmas on Vinson working towards the end of a goal that he has been remarkably focused on over the past five years.
I'll post updates on Jordan's climb as we get them.
