When he was just 9, California native Jordan Romero got it into his head to climb the Seven Summits–the tallest peak on each of the world’s seven continents.
By 10, he found himself standing on top of Kilimanjaro, setting his first record as the youngest American to climb Africa’s highest peak.
Now 13, little Jordan has defeated North America’s McKinley, which some consider more technical than Asia’s Everest, the world’s tallest peak and where he is now focusing what can only be described as determined eyes.
If he reaches the top, Jordan will be the youngest person to summit Everest. The current record holder, Nepal’s Temba Tsheri, was a 16-year-old Sherpa–and lost five fingers to frostbite in the process.
Jordan is young, but he is clearly skilled, with sights set quite literally as high as possible. (Please, mainstream media, don’t start calling him Air Jordan.) And while few of us truly believe we are mortal when we are tender 13-year-olds–which is a case against encouraging this expedition at such a young age–we can’t help but cheer the little dude onward.
As if Nepal wasn’t mesmerizing enough, the country recently announced it is going rogue, marrying–gasp!–gay couples, according to The New York Times. ‘‘They are high-spending consumers,’’ a spokesman for the Nepal Tourism Board said of gay tourists.
Back in January, the Times predicted this move based on whispers about the world’s most famous base camp: Started by Sunil Babu Pant, an openly-gay legislator, Pink Mountain Travels and Tours promises to marry adventure travel[ers] with gay weddings. With talk that Nepal may legalize same-sex marriage this year as the country hammers out a new constitution (and, perhaps more importantly, deals with recent bouts of civil unrest), Mr. Pant is offering to hold nuptials at the Mount Everest base camp, jungle safari honeymoons and bridal processions on elephant back.
Whether these marriage certificates will be honored once back home depends entirely on where home is, but destination weddings to Nepal are about to become a whole lot more common, and adventure tours of such places as Island Peak and the Annapurna Circuit a whole lot more colorful. Let’s just hope those pride flags don’t clash with the Buddhist prayer flags.
We’re looking for a few more people to sign up for our October trip to Island Peak, a trek/climb that even a beginner mountaineer could handle but that offers up full views of Mt. Everest and a hike to the famous Everest Base Camp. Island Peak, also known as Imja Tse, maxes out at 20,000 feet at its peak in eastern Nepal.
Imja Tse was first climbed in 1953 by a British team as a training exercise in preparation for Everest and is today an insider trekking favorite the world over.
Mercer Island’s Ang Chhiring Sherpa wants to help his native Nepalese people, 30 percent of whom live below the poverty line, according to the Mercer Island Reporter. So he is launching the Sherpa Seven Summit expedition, climbing the highest mountain in each of the planet’s seven continents, in the hopes of raising money and awareness for the health clinics, schools, hydroelectric project and airplane strip that he intends to establish in the Salleri area of Solu Khumbu, Nepal.
Sherpa, who is 37, has set his first sights on Mt. Aconcagua in Argentina on Feb. 22. Next up is Mt. Denali in Alaska, followed by Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, Mt. Elbrus in Russia, Mt. Kosciusko in Australia, Carstensz Pyramid (in Indonesia and therefore Oceania), Vinson Massif in Antarctica (he is climbing both since there is contention over which one should count), and of course saving the highest for last, Mt. Everest on the edge of his homeland, Nepal.
It remains to be seen whether climbing eight of the world’s tallest mountains will be tough for Sherpa, who spends four months every year as a sherpa and whose record in 14 years of mountaineering is just over 21,000 atop Mera Peak in the Himalayas. Sherpa says he is inspired by Sir Edmund Hillary, whom he trekked with once and who “gave so many things to Sherpas–four high schools, six medical clinics–in the district area.”
This is going to be a truly thrilling expedition to follow. Sherpa’s cause is noble, and he is clearly the right man for the job.
If you are interested in a company that offers Climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro Tours, please contact Embark, or visit our Kilimanjaro Tours section for more information.
If you haven’t seen the documentary Everest: The Other Side, you are missing out. And if you have, and loved it, then good news–there is more, and it is called The Rest of Everest.
In September 2007, the final episode from the 2003 expedition was released. The podcast began as a way to expand upon the story told in the film but has grown into an entity all it’s own. Since launching the podcast in 2006, Jon has returned to Everest twice to film more content specifically for the show. Another return visit is scheduled for Spring 2010. More recent episodes of the show also cover an entire expedition to Annapurna IV which Ben Clark and his climbing partners Josh Butson and Tim Clarke attempted in 2008. That “Beyond Everest” series brought the podcast back to its mountaineering roots.
The Rest of Everest is far more than a look into the alien world of high-altitude mountaineering. It is a look at the places, cultures, people, travelers and mountaineers that call the Everest region and the Himalayas home. Watch a few episodes and you’ll discover that the world portrayed in this series is hardly alien at all.
Champion’s new technological feat was unveiled a few weeks back at the Winter Outdoor Retailer show, where it was hailed as a light, thin, and flexible 3mm wonder that provides the same warmth and weight as far bulkier, 40mm down jackets. Since its grand unveiling, however, the Supersuit has also pulled the skeptics out of their closets; some have even condemned the Supersuit to failure before trying it on. They just don’t believe that Champion can do magic.
Fortunately for all, Alan Arnette has decided to weigh in, and the latest post to his blog provides tons of info on how the Supersuit actually works. It uses Aerogel, a hi-tech product Arnette describes as “warmer than down,” “breathable,” and “unbreakable.” It is such a good insulator, he says, that it “keeps hots things hot and cold things cold.” He also points out that there has been other gear on the market that have used Aerogel in the recent past; climber Anne Parmenter wore a pair of Aerogel socks on her Everest bid back in 2006, and her main complaint was said to be that the socks were too warm.
Sounds like the Supersuit may be worth a shot.
Photo by Lonnie Dupre
Polar explorer Eric Larson on Saturday reached the first of three major poles he plans to conquer in 2010 when he stood at the South Pole’s Amundsen-Scott Research Station. After 47 days of dragging gear-laden sleds across the Antarctic ice, Larsen and his two partners, Dongsheng Liu and Bill Hanlon, toured the research station at the far reaches of the planet only to realize that he recognized one of the workers as an old friend from Grand Marais, Minnesota, which Larson calls home. Check out his audio dispatch here.
Before the end of 2010, Larson also plans to stand on the North Pole and the summit of Mt. Everest. If he succeeds, he will be the first. Larsen will be writing a first-hand account of his journeys for the first issue of Wend magazine this year, whose headquarters, like Embark’s, are in Portland, Ore.
