50-50-50...

If you haven't already heard about this kid you should put down the t.v remote and google him right now...

Today, 11 year old Matt Moniz should be wrapping up his adventure of 50 peaks in 50 days in 50 states. If you ask me, I think this is an incredible accomplishment. He already has the biggest peaks under his belt (Denali, Whitney etc) and is in route to Hawaii to bag the 13,796ft Mauna Kea. Obviously he will go into the guiness book of world records as the youngest person to accomplish such a task, but this kid is amazing.

Matt took down Mt. Ranier (Washington's Highest Peak) and was back at his hotel room in Seattle eating pizza the same night. If you're not convinced of his skills you should reconsider that thought...he has also taken down some of the highest points in Europe and Africa.

This gets us into the debate about young children risking their lives on dangerous mountains and how stupid their parents are for putting their child in harms way. If you align your thoughts with the previous statement...please exit my blog (on second thought just keep reading, I don't have many followers). But seriously, given the correct resources and a good team these kids are no more at risk than riding in a car on the freeway.

Not that long ago Jordan Romero of Big Bear, CA climbed Everest at the age of 13. I followed him, almost religiously, on Facebook and his website to check on his progress and see if he could set the new record for youngest to summit. It's amazing how many parents were on the news bad mouthing Jordan's father and setp-mother (both of whom summited with Jordan). Sure he was putting himself in harms way, but with the training this kid had under his belt he was light years ahead, in terms of conditioning, than half the people that attempt to summit the worlds highest peak. Danger is realtive to preperation and experience, Jordan and Matt both prove that to be true...