Two-Year-Old Boy Believed to Be Youngest Person to Reach Everest Base Camp

A journey many people spend months training for has just been accomplished by a two-year-old toddler after his parents decided to take him on a whim. Carter Dallas, from Glasgow, Scotland, reached the 17,598-foot-high Everest base camp on October 25, 2023.

• Related: The Forced Relocation of Everest Base Camp – SnowBrains

Dallas is two years younger than the previous youngest person known to have reached the camp, a four-year-old from the Czech Republic. It’s important to note that the title includes “reach” as Dallas was carried most of the way by his father Ross. The 80-mile roundtrip adventure is a physically demanding task even if someone is not hiking it themselves. Battling the extreme altitude is a testament to endurance and mental toughness.

High-altitude pulmonary edema (HAPE) is altitude sickness that affects the lungs, causing them to fill with fluid, and this generally occurs around altitudes over 8,200 feet. Dallas and his family trekked to over 17,000 feet and remained over 14,000 feet for several days. Fortunately, the family was able to test Dallas’ blood before reaching base camp to ensure his biomarkers were healthy. Dallas’ mother, Jade, said this about the blood test to Telegraph UK:

“There were two medics at the villages before base camp and they tested his blood to check he was fine, his results were way better than ours—they were amazed!”

His mother continued to explain to Telegraph UK how well Dallas handled the conditions.

“We both got slight altitude sickness, but he was absolutely fine!”

Generally, taking toddlers to such elevation is taken with great caution. Children of Dallas’ age typically have a difficult time expressing emotions and symptoms of altitude sickness, which can make diagnosing altitude sickness a challenge.

The National Library of Medicine conducted a study to determine the safety of taking small children to high altitudes. Ironically, the study was conducted in the Tibetan plateau where Mt. Everest sits. In conclusion, the study revealed no significant difference in the risk of developing altitude sickness in children vs. adults. The following paragraph is a snippet of the study:

“We studied 464 children traveling across the Tibetan plateau at 4,550 meters and found incidences of acute mountain sickness and high-altitude pulmonary edema of 34% and 1.5% respectively on the basis of symptoms, physical examination, chest radiography, and relief of symptoms after oxygen therapy. These were almost identical to the corresponding incidences for 5,355 adults who were also studied.”

Dallas’ father, Ross believes his family was well-prepared because they regularly practice breathing techniques and take ice baths. Although they had been doing some training before their trek, it was such a last-minute decision that both parents just wore regular sneakers and picked up jackets and sleeping bags moments before they began their trek. Their trek to the Everest Base Camp is only a part of their year-long trip across Asia.

The Dallas family set out for their journey through Asia in August 2023. So far, they have visited India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, the Maldives and Malaysia. At the time this story came out, they were in the jungles of Khao Sok in Thailand, with Bangkok and Cambodia being the next stops.