I'm sure a few of you have already seen this on SP or elsewhere, but my friend Pratyush put a lot of effort into organizing this and I think this could be an interesting discussion.
Who: Jordan Romero, youngest Everest summiteer
What: Talk!
Where: Beckman Institute Auditorium, Caltech, Pasadena
When: 23 Nov, 6 PM
Details: http://www.ugcs.caltech.edu/~alpine/wik ... at_caltech
Jordan hails from nearby Big Bear and set the age record on Everest earlier this year by climbing the mountain at age 13. He's now 14 and a freshman in high school. Another interesting feature of the ascent was the use of hypobaric chambers prior to the ascent, allowing a more-or-less alpine-style ascent and the use of only 3 sherpas.
We plan to have an informal after-party to discuss the climb and enjoy refreshments. The club first met Jordan two years ago during our winter mountaineering trip to Mt. Whitney! We ran in to Jordan, Paul and Karen on a daytrip on the peak.
The talk is sponsored by the Caltech Alpine Club and the Caltech Graduate Student Council.
A follow-up from Stephen Becker, who runs the club: Anyhow, we know the climb is controversial and we hope the event (or this forum) will foster good-natured debate. What age is too young for high altitude mountaineering? Why are people more shocked about this, and not his ascent of Denali a few years ago?
At Caltech, we often seen young students (e.g.Stephen Wolfram http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Wolfram got his PhD here at age 20). Is this similar to a young climber? What role do parents play? What happens next?
Interesting questions, although it may be hard to discuss (and not prematurely judge) until after the talk.
