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An Eight-Year-Old Just Became The Youngest Woman To Summit Mount Kilimanjaro

An Eight-Year-Old Just Became The Youngest Woman To Summit Mount Kilimanjaro

Uhuru Peak, Mount Kilimanjaro

At 5895m above sea level, reaching the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro is no mean feat for grown-ups, let alone anyone who isn’t yet into double digits. But that didn’t stop eight-year-old Roxy Getter – last month, she became the youngest woman ever to conquer Africa’s highest mountain.

Getter, form Florida in the USA, took on the challenge with her family as part of their first-ever camping trip.

“Day one was one of the hardest days…because you had to go down and up and down, then you had to do the steep stair,” she told CBS, adding that she, her parents, Sarah and Bobby, and brother Ben, 10, trained for the task by running up and down stairs in their hometown of Punta Gorda.

“They were amazing. They did not complain. They just kept going one step in front of the other,” Sarah said. “They actually kept us going, I think, with their positive attitude.”

Around 25,000 attempt to summit Kilimanjaro every year, though it’s estimated only 66 per cent ever reach the top. Then-seven-year-old Keats Boyd holds the record for being the youngest person to summit Kilimanjaro, while Russian woman Angela Vorobeva was the oldest, ticking it off her bucket list at 86 years, 267 days old.

Located in the Kilimanjaro National Park in Tanzania’s north, the mountain is a dormant volcano comprised of three volcanic cones and takes most hikers eight to 10 days to conquer (though it can be summited in as little as five thanks to fast routes).

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Mount Kilimanjaro
Image: Flickr / Sam Hawley

(Lead image: Wikimedia Commons)

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