“Jordan Romero, the 13-year-old Californian teenager with the looks of a budding pop star, silenced his detractors by reaching the top of Mt Everest after almost four years of hard training. Romero, who plans to conquer the other highest peaks in six other continents, is now the youngest Everest hero. The record was earlier held by Ming Kipa Sherpa, a 15-year-old schoolgirl who had climbed Mt Everest in 2003 from the same northern route via Tibet that Ming Kipa took to circumvent the age restriction imposed by the Nepali authorities.
Around the same time, Arjun Vajpai, a 12th grader from Ryans International School in New Delhi, did India proud by planting the Indian tricolour on the peak of Mt Everest. Vajpai, 16 years 11 months and 18 days old now becomes the youngest Indian to achieve the task, outpacing Maharashtra’s Krushnaa Patil, who climbed the mountain last year at the age of 19.
Yet another incredible Everest feat came from a man who has already become a living legend. Apa “Super Sherpa”, 50, broke his own record of having climed Mt Everest an astonishing 19 times to make his 20th ascent. Apa was leading the Eco Everest Expedition 2010, an initiative started three years ago in the memory of Sir Edmund Hillary, the first Everest legend, to clean the mountain of the accumulating garbage.”