13-Year Old Indian Girl Becomes Youngest Female To Climb Mount Everest

Malavath Poorna

13-year old Malavath Poorna has become the youngest female to climb Mt. Everest.

Nepal requires climbers to be at least 16 years old to scale its
peaks, but Poorna said she and a team of Nepalese guides climbed the
29,035-foot mountain on May 25 from the northern side in Tibet. There
are no age restrictions in China.

“It was very difficult. Every step is a dangerous step,” a smiling
Poorna told reporters in New Delhi, describing steep slopes, exposed
rocks, deep crevasses and extreme cold that went below minus 40 degrees
Fahrenheit.

At 10,830 feet, she said she saw “six dead bodies. I was shocked. Oh my god I got some fear.”

But she remembered her training and regained her confidence.

“When I reached the top of Everest, very good experience. I feel
great and proud, and I shed joyful tears” as she looked around and saw
“mighty mountains and morning sunlight,” she said in English, waving her
hands expressively as she spoke.

The climb was verified by the China Tibet Mountaineering Association
in Lhasa, making Malavath the youngest girl to climb Everest. American
Jordan Romero, from Big Bear, California, became the youngest boy at age
13 to reach the summit — also from the Tibetan side — in 2010.