We’ve all marveled at the stories of Jordan Romero, who at the age of 13 became the youngest to summit Everest last month. Last week, Mountain Hardware introduced their newest, and youngest, sponsored athlete, in the form of 12-year old climber Matt Moniz. Even at that tender age, Matt has already managed to successfully summit Denali, Whitney, and Mt. Elbert, the tallest peak in the Rocky Mountains. Even more amazing, he did all three of those in just eight days! He has also been up Aconcagua, Kilimanjaro, and Elbrus, and made the trek to Everest Base Camp as well.
While Matt clearly loves to climb, and doesn’t lack skills in that department either, he also is climbing for a cause. He hopes to raise funds for research on pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), high blood pressure in the arteries of the lungs. Matt’s best friend, Iain Hess, suffers from PAH, and the young climber hoped to dedicate his expeditions toward helping his pal in any way that he could.
Last year in July, Matt set out to climb 14 of Colorado’s 14ers in just 14 days, and in the process he raised $20,000 for his cause. It helped to establish the Iain Hess Breathe Easy Fund. Turns out, it only took Matt and his team, 8 days to bag those peaks.
This is a great example of a young adventurer who seems to love what he is doing, and has a good cause that he is trying to support. I loved this story when I read it, and thought it was worth sharing here too. Great story!
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Ok, this is cool, but the beginning of the post doesn't make much sense. Denali, Whitney and Elbert in 8 days? Denali is in Alaska, Whitney in California, Elbert in Colorado… just traveling between the peaks would take more than 8 days. I tried to find a link to this story in your post, but there doesn't seem to be one…. very odd.
Sorry Kate, got a little too quick on posting this, but the link is there now. It's also found here:
http://blog.mountainhardwear.com/2010/06/mh_announces_1st_youth_athlete.html
Yep, he did it in eight days.
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