Should a 13 year old be climbing Everest?

four18 · 02-12-2011 7:24pm #1

I recently saw this article in the news. Apparently a 13 year old California boy, Jordan Romero, is planning to climb Mt. Everest along with his mother and father.

This strikes me as an incredibly bad idea. Everest kills something like 10% of people who climb it. What kind of parents would permit- much less encourage- something with those odds? The effects of a low-oxygen atmosphere on a growing brain are unknown.

Furthermore this shows that an Everest summit is no longer a feat of mountaineering as much as a feat of finance. It encourages more inexperienced and unqualified climbers to try the still-deadly odds.

What do you think?

hondasam · 02-12-2011 7:28pm

''So far, Romero has climbed five of the "seven summits" (each continent's highest peak): Kilimanjaro when he was 10, Elbrus in Russia, Aconcagua in Argentina, McKinley in Alaska and, last year, Carstensz Pyramid in Indonesia. Then there is the fact that his father is a paramedic with a speciality in high-altitude physiology.''

He is experienced as is his parents. I say good luck to him, hope he can do it. safely.

Oranage2 · 02-12-2011 7:30pm

four18 wrote: »

I recently saw this article in the news. Apparently a 13 year old California boy, Jordan Romero, is planning to climb Mt. Everest along with his mother and father.

This strikes me as an incredibly bad idea. Everest kills something like 10% of people who climb it. What kind of parents would permit- much less encourage- something with those odds? The effects of a low-oxygen atmosphere on a growing brain are unknown.

Furthermore this shows that an Everest summit is no longer a feat of mountaineering as much as a feat of finance. It encourages more inexperienced and unqualified climbers to try the still-deadly odds.

What do you think?

No guts no glory -

And it kills like 2% i think

BunShopVoyeur · 02-12-2011 7:31pm

If he's an experienced climber he'd be fitter than most or at least half the guys on here (including myself)

I don't see a problem if he's capable.

The Green · 02-12-2011 7:35pm

If he was a normal 13 yr old, he would just wait for EA Sports to bring out the game.:)

Chuck Stone · 02-12-2011 7:38pm

They should build an escalator to the top so any old fat tourist could do it.

Fart · 02-12-2011 7:41pm

The Green wrote: »

If he was a normal 13 yr old, he would just wait for EA Sports to bring out the game.:)

EA suck! Not a games company for the people.

Down with this sort of thing, or up... considering they'll be climbing the mountain. Or maybe down, because they need to get off it after they've been up it.

Cicero · 02-12-2011 7:43pm

This is the sort of negative effect years of watching the sound of music at Christmas time has on a family...the film should be banned.....:mad:

All together now...."Climb every mountain...ford every stream....etc"