LOS ANGELES — At 7, Tyler Armstrong is missing his two front teeth and is getting ready to start second grade.
While some classmates will share the usual summer vacation tales, Tyler, of Yorba Linda, Calif., will tell of his dizzying adventure: climbing California’s Mount Whitney.
At 14,494 feet, it is the tallest mountain in the Lower 48. Tyler trekked to the summit last month in a speedy seven hours and 50 minutes with his father, Kevin Armstrong.
“Tyler was pushing me up the mountain,” Armstrong said. “He was going faster than I’d ever gone before. The fastest I’d ever done it was nine hours.”
No official records are kept, but Tyler is among the youngest to hike Mount Whitney in a single day, his father said.
Except for a minor stumble where Tyler cut his knee on a rock and some altitude sickness at the summit, the hike was successful.
“I feel proud,” Tyler said. “I got to do stuff that not a lot of 7-year-olds can do.” Los Angeles Times
