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Screwed up: Should 13 year old be allowed to go and attempt to climb MT Everest?

Should Social Services step in and stop this?

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MetalGear

MetalGear

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A 13-year-old American boy is set to attempt to climb Mount Everest, in an effort to be the youngest person to scale the world's highest peak.
Jordan Romero has set off from Nepal's capital, Kathmandu, to the base camp on the Chinese side of the mountain.
He will begin his ascent there, along with his father and stepmother.
Jordan climbed Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania aged 10 and wants to be the youngest person to climb the highest mountains on seven continents.
His father and stepmother have been with him on all his mountain climbs.
The current record for the youngest climber of Everest is held by Nepali Temba Tsheri, who was 16 when he reached the peak in 2001.
Jordan Romero has already climbed the highest peaks in every continent apart from Asia, although he is not planning to tackle the Vinson Massif in Antarctica
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BBC News - US boy Jordan Romero, 13, in Mount Everest bid

Messed up. Do you think social services should reserve the right to step in and bring this to a halt?
 
Sure, why not. As long as he's not going up the hill blind, is accompanied by a parent/adult, and is skilled enough to do it.
 
It's his choice. Being an experienced climber I'm sure he knows the risks.

If he wants to do it, let him.

I'd advise him to wait a few more years though.
 
I don't see why he can't go.He seems like he knows what he's doing Because he has also climbed other mountains. And His mom and dad seem to be ok with it.(And going with him) So I really don't see why he shouldn't go. It's his and mom and dads choice anyway.
 
The kid is basically signing his death though. Isn't it the job of social services to ensure child safety? Isn't this negligence? Just wondering...im eager to hear what you have to say.
 
Ikari said:
Not sure if protective services can do anything about it. But hopefully the boy is light enough that his parents can haul his frozen body off the mountain.
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Shame you dont know him in person, he could do with some encouragement.
 
MetalGear said:
Shame you dont know him in person, he could do with some encouragement.
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Encouragement for what? Sounds to me if a 13 year old kid tackled huge mountains already at the age of 10 and wants to take on Everest now, that he has had enough encouragement for one lifetime.

Hope he doesn't freeze to death, that's the encouragement he can get from me.
 
Ikari said:
Encouragement for what? Sounds to me if a 13 year old kid tackled huge mountains already at the age of 10 and wants to take on Everest now, that he has had enough encouragement for one lifetime.

Hope he doesn't freeze to death, that's the encouragement he can get from me.
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:rofl was kidding
 
But i dunno. Just ironic social services get all pissy when you leave your kids at home and they end up burning themselves with an iron or having some sort of accident and you get quizzed for it....or they miss a few weeks off school. But its OK to climb Mt Everest.
 
A blind person's climbed it. A 70 year-old's climbed it. A 15 year-old's climbed it. As long as his parents are going with and he has the experience, what's the problem?
 
MetalGear said:
But i dunno. Just ironic social services get all pissy when you leave your kids at home and they end up burning themselves with an iron or having some sort of accident and you get quizzed for it....or they miss a few weeks off school. But its OK to climb Mt Everest.
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Only during summer vacation. ;)
 
In these types of discussions, I usually get in trouble for this, but maybe not this time....

It's up to the parents. They are the legal guardians of the child, it's their right to decide.
 
Sure. Why the hell not? Just more proof supporting Darwin's theory of evolution.
 
Kelzie said:
A blind person's climbed it. A 70 year-old's climbed it. A 15 year-old's climbed it. As long as his parents are going with and he has the experience, what's the problem?
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Our son went on his first wilderness canoe trip with me at age 9. He went on his first backpacking trip with me at age 5. He has done several backpacking trips since, including one last summer at age 8 to Holy Cross Wilderness in Colorado and we climbed the two highest passes in Colorado on it. He also goes mountain biking with me and trail running.

The thing is, while all those activities carry some risk, and are definitely more dangerous at times than what the average kid his age is out doing, unlike climbing Mount Everest, none of them has a 10% death rate.

The kid has a 1 in 10 chance of dying on that mountain. When you take his age into consideration (and what his VO2 Max is at 13), its probably much greater than that. So really, I don't know if he is old enough to really appreciate the gravity of something like that. He is certainly not old enough to join the military, and most wars are safer than climbing Everest.
 
SouthernDemocrat said:
Our son went on his first wilderness canoe trip with me at age 9. He went on his first backpacking trip with me at age 5. He has done several backpacking trips since, including one last summer at age 8 to Holy Cross Wilderness in Colorado and we climbed the two highest passes in Colorado on it. He also goes mountain biking with me and trail running.

The thing is, while all those activities carry some risk, and are definitely more dangerous at times than what the average kid his age is out doing, unlike climbing Mount Everest, none of them has a 10% death rate.

The kid has a 1 in 10 chance of dying on that mountain. When you take his age into consideration (and what his VO2 Max is at 13), its probably much greater than that. So really, I don't know if he is old enough to really appreciate the gravity of something like that. He is certainly not old enough to join the military, and most wars are safer than climbing Everest.
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It's actually 4% since the 90s. Regardless, as long as he is physically capable of doing it, which given his past record he appears to be, it should be up to the parents and this kid if they think it is worth the risk.
 
Kelzie said:
It's actually 4% since the 90s. Regardless, as long as he is physically capable of doing it, which given his past record he appears to be, it should be up to the parents and this kid if they think it is worth the risk.
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The kid probably isn't even tall enough to ride a roller coaster.
 
misterman said:
The kid probably isn't even tall enough to ride a roller coaster.
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Is there a height requirement to climb mountains? If anything, that's in his favor. He has less mass to haul up. :mrgreen:
 
Kelzie said:
It's actually 4% since the 90s. Regardless, as long as he is physically capable of doing it, which given his past record he appears to be, it should be up to the parents and this kid if they think it is worth the risk.
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The death rate as late as 2006 remained 1 in 10.

BBC NEWS | Health | Concern over Everest death rate

Of the summits listed in the article that the boy has climbed, only 2 are technical routes, McKinley and Carstenz Pyramid, and both of those are considerably shorter than Everest. That said, if he were an adult, he certainly would be considered fit to climb Everest.

The problem is that as a parent you can't just allow your kid to take any risk. You don't own your kids, they are not your property. So it seems there are some ethical and legal questions here.
 
jallman said:
Absolutely. But some around here think an 11 year old should be charged and tried as an adult with capital offenses so whatever. I guess a 13 year old should be free to kill himself on a dangerous mountain climb.
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Ah, that's the wonderful part of living in a free country where we elect idiots to conduct our public business. No sense expecting them to exercise moral coherence.
 
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