# Should a 13 year old be climbing Everest? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [April 15, 2010, 10:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-a-13-year-old-be-climbing-everest/536192 "2010-04-15T10:49:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![AClockworkMelon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aclockworkmelon/32/10803_2.png) [@AClockworkMelon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AClockworkMelon)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2010, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-a-13-year-old-be-climbing-everest/536192/61 "2010-04-15T23:48:16Z")
We shouldn’t be fighting this, guys. It’s called natural selection. ---
**Author:** ![Perciful](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b38774/32.png) [@Perciful](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Perciful)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2010, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-a-13-year-old-be-climbing-everest/536192/62 "2010-04-16T01:01:56Z")
My son climbed Mt. Washington with me and the AMC at 8. He choked at one point on some open faced rock. We were all able to talk him through his fear. Mt. Everest is something I would never attempt with a child. It sounds like they are not thinking of his best interest. Why not wait a few years until he is mature enough to handle it? I don’t think he has enough body fat and muscle. I hope this isn’t one of those parents seeking attention stunts and using their child as the hook. Have the parents climbed it already? This is extremely dangerous… ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2010, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-a-13-year-old-be-climbing-everest/536192/63 "2010-04-16T01:02:29Z")
Bear Grylls climbed Everest when he was 23 (youngest Brit to do so). He said at that time it was thought to be particularly dangerous to younger people because they didn’t have the patience, experience, and good judgement older climbers supposedly possessed. (Though he climbed, for practice, another mountain in the area thought to be unclime-able before tackling Everest.) No guide? Someone should arrest those parents for child endangerment. ---
**Author:** ![Perciful](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b38774/32.png) [@Perciful](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Perciful)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2010, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-a-13-year-old-be-climbing-everest/536192/64 "2010-04-16T02:14:11Z")
> [@salinqmind](#): > > Bear Grylls climbed Everest when he was 23 (youngest Brit to do so). He said at that time it was thought to be particularly dangerous to younger people because they didn’t have the patience, experience, and good judgment older climbers supposedly possessed. (Though he climbed, for practice, another mountain in the area thought to be unclime-able before tackling Everest.) > > No guide? Someone should arrest those parents for child endangerment. I’m with you. When my son lost it at about 3 thousand feet it was only with the help of some great AMC guides that he was able to go on. Once we were off the rock wall he enjoyed the rest of the climb. Bear Grylls was 23 so his child should be able to do it at 13? If the kid dies both parents should do hard time for being so ignorant. ---
**Author:** ![Shamozzle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shamozzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shamozzle)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2010, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-a-13-year-old-be-climbing-everest/536192/65 "2010-04-16T03:59:12Z")
> [@Telemark](#): > > The same thing could be said for walking to school alone, or operating farm machinery, but kids that age do it all the time. Not when we account for risk factors. Come on. > [@Ludy](#): > > I just have to say that a few years ago I was working a Mountain Film Festival and a Sherpa (a son of Tenzing Norgay) said that on a good day anyone can climb Everest. There are just not that many good days. The “best” days on Everest are still very dangerous days, sufficiently so as to preclude “anyone” climbing it. It is patent nonsense to say that on a good day anyone can climb Everest. > [@carm](#): > > The fact that extremely experienced climbers have died and inexperienced climbers have reached the summit suggests that luck plays a major factor. So its possible that a 13 year old has just as good a chance as a professional, as long as he has a certain level of climbing expertise. Which, if he’s already climbed Kilimanjaro, he does Having climbed Kilimanjaro does not qualify one as being ready to climb Everest, not by a long shot. You know this. > [@Telemark](#): > > As 8000 meter peaks go, Everest, as difficult as it is, is rather tame. Well, ya, sure. _As 8000 peaks go_. As planets go, Mars isn’t very far away. As gunshot wounds go, a .22 isn’t as bad as a Barrett 50 Caliber. ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2010, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-a-13-year-old-be-climbing-everest/536192/66 "2010-04-16T04:05:01Z")
> [@AClockworkMelon](#): > > We shouldn’t be fighting this, guys. > > It’s called natural selection. And that would be cool if I accepted the fact that this child was mature enough to make this kind of mistake. Fuck his parents, they can jump off cliffs for all I care. ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2010, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-a-13-year-old-be-climbing-everest/536192/67 "2010-04-16T05:28:38Z")
> [@Telemark](#): > > I’m well aware of the risks, costs, and effort required [to summit Everest] Really? Because you’re acting a whole awful lot like you haven’t the slightest idea. ---
**Author:** ![CutterJohn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/91b2a8/32.png) [@CutterJohn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CutterJohn)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2010, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-a-13-year-old-be-climbing-everest/536192/68 "2010-04-16T05:46:55Z")
When John Quincy Adams was 12, his dad took him on a boat across the atlantic to paris. During a war. Since it was a war, it was likely they would come under attack. Which they did(the privateer that attacked them was, iirc, either taken a prize or burned). Then, young John Quincy, at the tender age of 14, was sent by his dad to work as a secretary for an ambassador to russia. Must have been a horrible experience. He only went on to be President… We coddle kids too much nowadays. Bravo for the kid for attempting something most of us would be scared to do, and bravo to the father giving is son a chance at an experience the likes of which most of us will never have. ---
**Author:** ![treis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bc79bd/32.png) [@treis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/treis)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2010, 7:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-a-13-year-old-be-climbing-everest/536192/69 "2010-04-16T07:12:02Z")
> [@](#): > > As they plod on, Paul and Karen feed Jordan with the rhythmic regularity of an IV drip: a Werthers candy here, string cheese, water. But after several hours, Karen notices that Jordan is slowing down and breathing hard. She calls to him, and he looks back with tears streaming down his face. > > The trio stops abruptly. Paul sits cross-legged in the snow and draws Jordan into his lap. Jordan erupts in a flood of emotion. He’s no longer sure why he wants to climb Aconcagua; he’s sad about his grandma, who died the previous summer; he’s tired. Everything on his mind bubbles to the surface–he’s bonking. Paul holds him and hugs him and tells him it’s okay, cry, use the memory of your grandma to help you. After 10 minutes of sobbing, Jordan takes a drink, eats some M&Ms, and says he’s ready to move on. They lean into the storm for another hour and a half, finally dragging themselves, exhausted, into high camp. From the Backpacker Magazine article. That, to me, doesn’t sound like someone ready to climb Everest. It is even worse when you consider that Aconcagua is 6000 feet short of Everest and is not a technical climb. It is more of a put one foot in front of the other type climb. Still difficult because of the altitude, but not anything like Everest. Despite his parents claims, it really looks like they are pushing him on. At Everest’s altitude, even with supplemental oxygen, people are barely able to be responsible for themselves. Adding in the responsibility of a child, especially with a large desire to see that child succeed, is not a good idea. Then there are the health risks: > [@](#): > > “Is this harmful for 13-year-olds? No one really knows,” says Hugh Montgomery, Professor of Intensive Care Medicine at UCL. But Montgomery points to evidence of a “neurological deficit” caused by altitude: MRI scans showed brain volumes were smaller after climbing Everest. Anecdotally, climbers (including Montgomery, who has been above 8,000 metres) widely report amnesia, while older climbers in their 40s seem far better able to cope with altitude than youngsters. > **[Should a teenager be climbing Mount Everest?](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/apr/12/should-teenager-climbing-mount-everest)** > > Californian Jordan Romero, 13, is attempting to become the youngest person to climb Mount Everest. Should children be undertaking such a risky challenge? This is just a bad idea all around. ---
**Author:** ![Electric\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9de0a6/32.png) [@Electric\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Electric_Sky)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2010, 10:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-a-13-year-old-be-climbing-everest/536192/70 "2010-04-16T10:04:40Z")
I thought it was a bad idea, but not really deserving of being called “child endagerment”, until I read this: > [@Skammer](#): > > …the boy and his parents are not only planning to climb Mr. E, they’re going _without a guide_. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2010, 10:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-a-13-year-old-be-climbing-everest/536192/71 "2010-04-16T10:27:31Z")
Braskey taught his son to drive by entering him into the Indy 500. The kid wrecked and died. Brasky said, “It would have happened sometime!” ---
**Author:** ![BrandonR](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/779978/32.png) [@BrandonR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrandonR)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2010, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-a-13-year-old-be-climbing-everest/536192/72 "2010-04-16T13:13:10Z")
It’ll definitely get him laid, and for a 13-year-old boy, a 100% prospect of poontang easily outweighs a 10% chance of death. ---
**Author:** ![BrandonR](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/779978/32.png) [@BrandonR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrandonR)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2010, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-a-13-year-old-be-climbing-everest/536192/73 "2010-04-16T13:15:02Z")
> [@Sitnam](#): > > And that would be cool if I accepted the fact that this child was mature enough to make this kind of mistake. Fuck his parents, they can jump off cliffs for all I care. Oh yeah? Well they can fall off Mt. Everest for all _I_ care! Oh wait, there’s a pretty good chance of that happening anyway. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2010, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-a-13-year-old-be-climbing-everest/536192/74 "2010-04-16T13:39:08Z")
My understanding is that if you get in trouble way up on those tall, tall mountains, either you rescue yourself or you die. If you can’t walk, there’s not a lot anybody can do for you without killing themselves. Is that not true? ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2010, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-a-13-year-old-be-climbing-everest/536192/75 "2010-04-16T14:17:52Z")
> [@CutterJohn](#): > > When John Quincy Adams was 12, his dad took him on a boat across the atlantic to paris. During a war. Since it was a war, it was likely they would come under attack. Which they did(the privateer that attacked them was, iirc, either taken a prize or burned). Then, young John Quincy, at the tender age of 14, was sent by his dad to work as a secretary for an ambassador to russia. Must have been a horrible experience. He only went on to be President.. > > We coddle kids too much nowadays. > > Bravo for the kid for attempting something most of us would be scared to do, and bravo to the father giving is son a chance at an experience the likes of which most of us will never have. What does one have to do with the other? How do we know that the that’s why he became president? I’m guessing being a rich white male with family connections had a lot more to do with it than not being coddled. Besides, the kid will still have the experience when he’s of legal age. In five years, it may still be a stupid decision that gets him killed but it’s his decision to make. ---
**Author:** ![fluiddruid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c2a13f/32.png) [@fluiddruid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fluiddruid)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2010, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-a-13-year-old-be-climbing-everest/536192/76 "2010-04-16T14:31:54Z")
> [@Zsofia](#): > > My understanding is that if you get in trouble way up on those tall, tall mountains, either you rescue yourself or you die. If you can’t walk, there’s not a lot anybody can do for you without killing themselves. Is that not true? Yep, that is true. To a point, rescues are attempted. I’ve read accounts of people being dragged down by groups of people working in teams, or that sort of thing. But this can’t be done for the entire climb; at very high altitude, it’s extraordinarily difficult to move about at all, let alone try to lower someone down sheer ice walls. That’s also assuming that conditions stay good enough for a rescue. If the weather turns, as it often does, visibility and temperature can make rescue impossible. If you don’t have guides or sherpas, the risk increases a huge amount. Your judgement simply isn’t the same at 8,000+ that it is at sea level. If you’re in trouble, there are no emergency services. Now other teams, with their own limited resources, are expected to save you - putting their own lives at risk. Look, I have no problem with an adult making risky choices. I have a huge problem with an adult making risky choices that puts other people in danger, and I have a huge problem with an adult okaying a child to make an incredibly risky choice on top of this. Everest climbing is ugly. It is not a place for a 13 year old. This is not coddling, this is being realistic. A 5 year old shouldn’t be manning a chainsaw, either. Maybe it’ll be fine, but if it’s not – and considering two inexperienced (yes, inexperienced) climbers are attempting to summit without guides, this is very likely – it will be really, really not at all fine. ---
**Author:** ![Galileo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/85e7bf/32.png) [@Galileo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Galileo)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2010, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-a-13-year-old-be-climbing-everest/536192/77 "2010-04-16T14:32:46Z")
Interesting article in Wikipedia on the [Timeline of climbing Mount Everest](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_climbing_Mount_Everest). First attempt in 1922. First success in 1953. (John Hunt and Edmund Hillary knighted for their efforts.) [Apa Sherpa](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apa_Sherpa)’s 19th climb in 2009. (Reached summit first time in 1990.) It seems that the article includes all the deaths that have occurred on Mount Everest. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2010, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-a-13-year-old-be-climbing-everest/536192/78 "2010-04-16T14:36:57Z")
> [@CutterJohn](#): > > When John Quincy Adams was 12, his dad took him on a boat across the atlantic to paris. During a war. Since it was a war, it was likely they would come under attack. Which they did(the privateer that attacked them was, iirc, either taken a prize or burned). Then, young John Quincy, at the tender age of 14, was sent by his dad to work as a secretary for an ambassador to russia. Must have been a horrible experience. He only went on to be President.. > > We coddle kids too much nowadays. John Quincy Adams went sailing on a ship one time and his ship got attacked, then worked for an ambassador. He became president 40 years later. This proves it’s a great idea for this 13-year-old to climb Mount Everest. We can all agree that working a desk job in Russia is very similar to climbing a 29,000-foot mountain, right? (Not mentioned: John Quincy’s father was in Europe most of the time he was; he was ambassador and they often traveled together. Also his father became the president, which might have helped John Quincy’s job prospects somewhat.) Anyway you make a good point: kids who don’t climb Mount Everest are wimps. ---
**Author:** ![thirdname](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d07c76/32.png) [@thirdname](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thirdname)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2010, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-a-13-year-old-be-climbing-everest/536192/79 "2010-04-16T14:37:15Z")
I wonder how the danger this kid will face on Everest compares to the danger an infantryman in Iraq or Afghanistan faces, in terms of death rates and things like that. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2010, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-a-13-year-old-be-climbing-everest/536192/80 "2010-04-16T15:22:23Z")
> [@Cisco](#): > > Really? Because you’re acting a whole awful lot like you haven’t the slightest idea. No, I understand exactly the risks, and as I said, I’d never allow a child under my control to attempt a trip like this. I’ve been to altitude and I know the affect it had on me and the people around me. I have had friends die at altitude, and I have friends there right now, attempting Everest along side this kid. But I’m not willing to put this in the realm of child endangerment. It’s very risky, as are many things in life. It’s not something I’d choose for myself or my family. But I’ve seen friends make the choice that I would not, and I can’t see how I could restrict them or their children from attempting something like this. It’s a “freedom of the hills” thing, and it’s hard for me to separate it from other outdoors activities that are less dangerous but still more dangerous than most people would allow their children to take on. If we can rule out this activity, I can easily see a day where Trish would not be allowed to take her 6-year old daughter up Mt Adams in winter, and that would be wrong IMO. In these situations, is usually the general public, who doesn’t really understand the sport, making uninformed decisions about others well-being. Everest is certainly an extremely dangerous place, but I still don’t like drawing the line. I realize that it’s somewhat inconsistent since I support mandatory child seat (but not bike or ski helmet laws) for kids. I struggle with that inconstancy, and don’t have a good answer. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-a-13-year-old-be-climbing-everest/536192.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-a-13-year-old-be-climbing-everest/536192.md?page=5)