Thin Air

Send Your Kid to Everest!

The 13-year-old who’s on his way up the mountain.

Meet Jordan Romero. He’s like any other 13-year-old kid, except that he’s planning to climb Mount Everest in May. In Outside magazine, Bruce Barcott has a harrowing profile of the tween who would be the youngest human ever to climb Everest—oh, and the rest of the Seven Summits, of which Jordan has already climbed five. Barcott shows how the adventure community is awfully skeptical. Jordan may be strong enough to make the summit, but does he have the experience and judgment if things go awry? Forget Into Thin Air: “A kid's death could draw Nancy Grace and a passel of outraged congressmen into the fray,” Barcott writes. One more fright: Jordan isn’t taking a guide.