17-year-old California resident scales Everest, youngest to top seven summits
By APWednesday, June 10, 2009
17-year-old California resident scales Everest
LOS ANGELES — A 17-year-old California resident reached the summit of Mount Everest as part of his trek to become the youngest person to scale the tallest peaks on each of the world’s seven continents.
Johnny Strange, a senior in high school who resides in Malibu, Calif., reached the top of the 29,035-foot mountain on May 20. His Everest mountain climb was his sixth. He completed his final summit climb on June 8 when he scaled Australia’s 7,310-foot Mount Kosciuszko.
Strange broke the record of Samantha Larson of Long Beach, Calif., who was 18 when she finished the seven summits challenge in 2007.
Strange has been climbing mountains since he was 12. He tagged along with his dad, Brian — an attorney in Los Angeles — to Antarctica where the duo checked Mount Vinson Massif off the list in 2004.
Strange scaled the original seven summits, which included Everest, Vinson Massif, Kosciuszko, McKinley (20,320) in Alaska, Aconcagua (22,841) in South America, Kilimanjaro (19,340) in Africa and Elbrus (18,510) in Europe. Some consider the 16,024-foot Carstensz Pyramid in Indonesia as an alternative.
Strange was traveling with his father from Australia on Tuesday and is expected to be back in Southern California by Wednesday.
