Oh boy... 6-year-old Joshua sets world mountaineer record
Young Irish explorer reaches new heights in Morocco
AN adventure-loving six-year-old has set what is believed to be a world record by becoming the youngest person to climb the highest mountain in North Africa.
Joshua Davison scaled the 4,167m peak of Mount Toubkal in Morocco and, making it even more challenging, was the fact it was undertaken in thick snow on a winter ascent.
The young climber, from Killarney in Co Kerry, embarked on the climb with his mum Lyndsey and her partner Lucky Flynn, who is an experienced mountaineer.
They climbed for more than two days, the first involving a testing fourhour trek to a mountain refuge where they spent the night.
Lyndsey said: “At over 3,000m we could already feel the altitude but we set off for the summit at 7am the following morning.
“We wore crampons on our feet as most of the route to the summit was over a steep, icy slope of up to 40 degrees.”
The reduced oxygen level, which had dropped to just 12.4% at the summit of Toubkal, made it a gruelling task but Joshua and co remained determined and pushed on steadily to the summit.
ACHIEVEMENT
They reached the mountain top after six hours of climbing on day two and the sense of achievement they experienced was enormous.
Lyndsey said: “We descended in six hours and I had to keep asking Joshua to slow down so I could keep up.”
The family is in the process of submitting the details of for inclusion in the Guinness Book Of Records but, in the meantime, Joshua is back at school in Miss Dennehy’s senior infants class at St Oliver’s National School, Killarney, where he is sharing details of his adventure with his pals. He was already the youngest person to summit Ireland’s highest peak, Carrauntoohil.
Next year he hopes to set another record for being the youngest person to climb Kilimanjaro to raise funds for the Make-a-wish Foundation.