Toddler Climbs Everest

She slurps oxygen from sippee cup on ice fields

Parody, May 24, 2010

Three-year-old Annabelle Chouinard of Boulder, Colorado, clambered to the top of Mt. Everest yesterday to set a new record for the youngest person to reach the summit, besting the previous record set just a day earlier by 13-year-old Jordan Romero of Big Bear Lake, California. Romero, in turn, had eclipsed a youngest-climber record set only a few hours earlier by Arjun Bajpai, 16.

"She went right from teething ring to ice ax," said Anna's mother, Erin Chouinard. "We couldn't keep her in a playpen, so we set her up in an an old ice box that hadn't been defrosted in years. She scaled the walls as soon as we put crampons on her pajama feet. That girl played peak-a-boot."

The Chouinards rigged up a special delivery system so little Annabelle could slurp oxygen from a sippee cup on ice fields above 25,000 feet elevation. A pair of Sherpas carried extra blankies for cool evenings in the expedition tent.

Some observers criticised the Chouinards for putting Annabelle at risk on the world's most dangereous mountain slopes that have claimed the lives of many climbers. But the little girl was unfazed by her remarkable ascent. "Not famous," Annabelle giggled as a glob of drool oozed down her climbing harness. "Just want own weeality balloon show."

—James Dunn
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