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Durango boy may be youngest to hike Whitney

6-year-old hiked Sierra Nevada’s highest peak in eight hours, dad says

A Durango first-grader may have set a new record last week after scaling Mount Whitney, the highest peak in the Sierra Nevada and contiguous United States.

The California mountain stands at 14,505 feet, which was no problem for 6-year-old Orin Gartner, who topped Whitney’s peak last Saturday in about eight hours.

“They’re big,” is Orin’s reply to why he likes to climb mountains. When he grows up, the Fort Lewis Elementary student wants to figure out a way he can climb “all the time.”

Orin has experienced summit views since he was born, first in the carriers his parents wore on their backs, and eventually, on his own two feet.

His father, Russ Gartner, said that Orin was 3 when he topped Mount Democrat, a fourteener in the Mosquito Range.

“It took a long time and we went at his pace, but he walked to the top,” Gartner said. “Then we walked him back down in the backpack while he took a nap.”

At 4, Orin climbed Colorado’s tallest peak, Mount Elbert.

Mount Whitney was Orin’s idea. This was little surprise to his father, who recalls that to “go up and touch the clouds” was one of his son’s first goals as a toddler.

“After he climbed Elbert, he would tell his friends, ‘I climbed the tallest peak in the world!’” Russ Gartner said. “We had to show him there are other mountains that are higher, so we got a map and started checking out different ones. He pointed at ones like Denali that are literally impossible for a child. Mount Whitney ended up striking interest because it was within a day’s drive. He was stoked.”

Carrying an 8-pound pack, Orin set out last weekend with his family at 9 a.m. and reached Whitney’s peak around 5 p.m. The view from the top wasn’t bad.

“I saw a bunch of mountains,” Orin said.

Records of youngest climbers are unofficial, but 7-year-old Tyler Armstrong took the provisional title in 2011 for youngest person to climb Mount Whitney. Now, Orin may be the new title-holder.

The hardest part of climbing is that it’s “really tiring,” he said. “But I keep going by taking a rest, eating a snack and napping,” Orin said.

The youngster missed some school for the Whitney trip, but he compensated with a science experiment that began by accident. The high-altitude pressure on his Nalgene water bottle crushed the durable plastic, to his surprise.

“It squeezed up from the thin air,” Orin said. “When we got to Badwater Basin (in Death Valley), it popped back, but with cracks.”

Now that he’s summitted the Sierra’s highest peak, Orin has just one thought for what he wants to do next: “Climb another mountain!”

jpace@durangoherald.com



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