Seven-year-old becomes youngest girl to reach Mount Kilimanjaro

This seven-year-old school girl has made history by becoming the youngest female to scale the dizzying heights of Mount Kilimanjaro.

Montannah Kenney from Texas, US, had trained for several months alongside her mother Hollie Kenney before the daring pair completed the climb from their base camp to the peak in just six and a half days.

The young girl climbed the huge mountain in honour of her father, who sadly passed away in 2013.

"We've always talked about her dad being in heaven, and we always talk about her dad being above the clouds – that's where heaven is," says Hollie.

"And I think mountains are very intriguing to her because a lot of them are above (clouds)."

Despite having trained by completing long hikes around their hometown, Montannah and her mom weren’t entirely prepared for the rain, hail, and freezing temperatures they faced while climbing to the summit.

"When I called the Tanzania office [later] to talk to them, they said, 'We heard you had the worst weather in 10 years,'" says the mom.

"And no one ever alluded to that when we were up there. We just figured it was normal and something we had to deal with, but the weather was terrible."

Although the mother and daughter are both experienced triathletes, the proud mom approached the new plan with extra caution, both before and during the climb.

She consulted a doctor for tips on how her daughter could scale the mountain carefully and was fully prepared to head down if Montannah experienced any altitude sickness.

Considering the low oxygen levels at the dormant volcano's peak – successful climbers can only spend minutes there – Montannah celebrated her achievement the best way she could.

"I blew kisses at dad, so he knew I was there," the 7-year-old told The Austin American-Statesman.

The pair completed the climb in part to raise money for eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing therapy – a type of therapy that's commonly used on trauma survivors.

Montannah's dad had just begun EMDR therapy when he died.

Source: Magazine Features

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