A 19-year-old American woman has made it to the summit of Everest, becoming the youngest foreign woman to scale the world's highest peak, Nepali officials said Friday.
Samantha Larson from Long Beach, California, reached the 8,848-metre (29,198-foot) summit on Thursday, Tourism Ministry official Khadananda Dhakal told AFP. The feat also makes her the youngest person to scale the highest peaks on all seven continents.
The youngest person to have reached the summit is Ming Kipa Sherpa, a 14-year-old Nepali girl who climbed from the Tibetan side in 2003. A brief window between the spring and summer monsoon season means that most climbers tackle Everest in May, and officials said at least 66 climbers have reached the summit in the last three days.
Some 550 are attempting the peak, which was first climbed in 1953 by Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary. Three climbers including two South Koreans and a Sherpa guide have been killed on the mountain this season.