Who is the youngest person to climb the 7 summits?

Jordan Romero of the United States, who finished on Vinson on 24 December 2011 at 15 years and 165 days, on both lists. He had already become the youngest person to climb Everest, at 13, in May 2010, from the Tibetan side because Nepal does not issue permits to climbers under 16. He climbed with his father and stepmother from the age of 9, when he saw a mural of the 7 summits at school and announced he would climb them.

The youngest women

Kaamya Karthikeyan of India finished the Kosciuszko list on Vinson on 24 December 2024, at 17 years and 136 days, the youngest woman on that list. Mrika Nikçi of Kosovo finished the Carstensz Pyramid list on 15 August 2019, at 17 years and 252 days, the youngest woman on that one. Before them, Samantha Larson of the United States finished both lists in 2007 at 18, and Marin Minamiya of Japan in 2016 at 19, going on to the two poles to become the youngest to complete the Explorers Grand Slam.

The others under 18

George Atkinson of the United Kingdom finished the Carstensz Pyramid list on Everest on 26 May 2011 at 16 years and 362 days, and held the overall record for seven months until Romero's Vinson climb. Johnny Collinson of the United States finished at 17 in 2010. Both are among the youngest on the leaderboards, which rank the youngest and oldest on each of the three lists from the recorded dates, and leave out any record whose completion date is only known to the year.

Is there a lower limit?

Not for the challenge, which has no organiser, but the mountains set their own. Nepal issues no Everest permit to anyone under 16, China's side has required climbers to be 18 since 2010, and Kilimanjaro's park sets 10 as the minimum age, with exceptions by application. Every record below 18 was set with a parent on the rope, and the climbers themselves have been the first to say that the number was never the point. Can children climb Kilimanjaro? has the rules for the one peak families most often ask about.