**A 13-year-old American boy is set to attempt to climb Mount Everest, in an effort to be the youngest person to scale the world’s highest peak.**Jordan Romero has set off from Nepal’s capital Kathmandu to the base camp on the Chinese side of the mountain.
He will begin his ascent there, accompanied by his parents.
Jordan climbed Mount Kilimanjaro in Kenya aged 10 and wants to be the youngest person to climb the highest mountains on seven continents.
His father and stepmother have been with him on all his mountain climbs.
He has already climbed the highest peaks in every continent apart from Asia, although he is not planning to tackle the Vinson Massif in Antarctica.
“It’s something I’ve always wanted to do before I die - I just happen to be doing it at this age. I happen to be going for a world record. But I just want to climb it,” Jordan told the AFP news agency.
The latest post on Jordan Romero’s website says: “It’s time to mobilize” and that the five-day drive to the Chinese base camp was about to begin.
There have been concerns about allowing somebody of Jordan’s age to make the ascent but he has said he will not take any unnecessary risks and will turn around if any problems arise.
Before he begins climbing, he will spend some weeks acclimatising at base camp.
The current record for the youngest climber of Everest is held by Nepali Temba Tsheri, who was 16 when he reached the peak in 2001.This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.