Making History: 15-Year-Old Becomes First Person With Down Syndrome To Climb Mount Everest

Are you ready for a super-inspiring feel good story? Of course you are! There were smiles all around the Her.ie office when we came across this bit of news.

A 15-year-old teen from Oregon in the States has become the first person with Down Syndrome to climb to the base camp of Mount Everest.

ABC Local reports that Eli Reimer, his dad and a group of friends made the two-week, 70-mile hike to Everest’s base camp in order to raise money and awareness for disabled children.

Eli and his dad made sure they took a lot of pictures documenting their journey

The group made the climb in order to benefit The Elisha Founation, a nonprofit organization which was founded by Eli’s parents in order to give other families of children with disabilities “practical and emotional support.”

Eli and his dad trained for a year before they undertook their trek up Everest. It took them 19 days and over 70miles to reach the camp which stands at an altitude of 17,600 feet.

According to his dad, Eli led the way for the entire trek

“I would say over 90 per cent of the world’s cultures don’t accept disability and wouldn’t think that somebody like my son would be able to attempt let alone complete something like this. So it was an amazing experience to do it with him,” said Justin Reimer, Eli’s dad.

“And like I said he actually led the way. We were dragging. We were experiencing our own sense of disability as we went up into the moutains and he led us all the way to base camp,” Justin added.

Mission accomplished!

Eli is the first person with Down Syndrome to ever stand in that spot. We think he’s a major inspiration to everyone. What a hero, right?