Eli Reimer, a 15-year-old from Oregon, has become the first teenager to reach the base camp of Mount Everest in Nepal. Traveling with an expedition team which included Reimer’s father, they hiked for 10 days scaling 17,600 feet up the tallest of the famed Himalayan mountains.
Although Eli Reimer has Down Syndrome, he has accomplished what few people ever will. Reimer’s father commented on his son’s amazing spirit, “He was actually leading us on the trail and we were the ones feeling our own sense of disability. It was no big deal to him, the rest of us were sucking wind.”
The climb up Mount Everest was a fundraiser for the Elisha Foundation, that provides support to special needs families.