| We all know that Tenzing Norgay and Sir Edmund | | | | The following month, Everest Base Camp will |
| Hillary were the first mountaineers to conquer | | | | become home for a young man with big |
| Mount Everest (8,848 m), and many of us will | | | | ambitions. At the age of just thirteen, Jordan |
| have heard that Sir Ranulph Fiennes was the first | | | | Romero from California aims to become the |
| British pensioner to make the summit in 2009. But | | | | youngest person to climb the highest peaks in |
| there are always new records being set and new | | | | seven continents. Everest will be the last mountain |
| challenges being launched from Everest Base | | | | on his list to climb to complete the prestigious |
| Camp. It seems everything about this historic | | | | Seven Peaks Challenge. |
| staging area is dramatic: the determination and the | | | | Jordan will be following in the youthful footsteps |
| accomplishments of the people that pass through | | | | of the current record holder, Johnny Strange, |
| Base Camp, and Everest's spectacular form | | | | who began his series of seven mighty climbs at |
| towering above. | | | | the age of twelve, and completed the Seven |
| Everest Milestones | | | | Peaks five years later in June 2009, setting a |
| There's an unusual long-distance traveller on the | | | | world record in the process. If all goes well for |
| move right now that has a close association with | | | | Jordan Romero, he will better Johnny's record by |
| Mount Everest. Curiously, the traveller is not a | | | | a full three years, which he says will make him |
| person but a moon rock. The lunar sample, | | | | feel "super stoked". |
| collected from the Sea of Tranquillity during the | | | | The Seven Peaks Challenge is no mean feat, and |
| historic Apollo 11 landing, will be a passenger on a | | | | it has taken the teenager all over the world. |
| journey back out of the earth's atmosphere as | | | | Jordan has climbed the highest mountains in the |
| part of a 2010 NASA launch to the International | | | | Andes and Australia; he has travelled to the hard |
| Space Station. | | | | to reach Vinson Massif (4,892 m) in Antarctica, |
| The long-travelling rock will be partnered with one | | | | and has conquered Mt Kilimanjaro (5,892 m), |
| collected from Mount Everest and made part of a | | | | Elbrus (5,642 m) in Russia, and McKinley (6,194 m) |
| display in the ISS, so that both the Moon and the | | | | in Alaska. Jordan's seventh expedition in the series |
| Earth will be represented in the space station that | | | | will begin with a gradual acclimatisation along |
| floats between the two celestial bodies. It is a | | | | Everest Base Camp trek, following on from a |
| simple gesture that demonstrates our ingenuity | | | | number of preparatory climbs he has already |
| and determination to overcome great distances | | | | made to get his body used to the high altitude. |
| and difficulty in the name of exploration. The | | | | Then Everest is waiting. |
| moon rock was with the astronaut Scott | | | | Jordan has estimated that he will have to make a |
| Parazynski when he climbed from Everest Base | | | | number of training runs up the mountain from |
| Camp to the mountain's summit in May 2009 and | | | | Everest Base Camp before he will be ready for a |
| will be united in orbit with the Everest rock early | | | | summit bid, a process which could take as long as |
| in February 2010. | | | | two months to complete, weather permitting. |
| Records set in Stone | | | | |