An Irvine teenager is believed to be the youngest girl in the U.S. to summit Mount Everest.
Charlotte Ding was 15 when she conquered the world’s tallest mountain last year.
“There was a time when my hand almost froze,” Ding recently told the Orange County Register. “I couldn’t move it, and I couldn’t even feel pain.”
She set a goal to climb the 29,032-foot Mount Everest after summiting Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa’s tallest mountain, in 2018. She joined a mountaineering team in Tibet to prepare for Everest.
Ding, now 16, attends Pacific Academy in Irvine. Her uncle climbed Everest in 2016.
