Tyler Armstrong, a 9-year-old boy from Southern California, became the youngest person in history to climb to the top of Argentina's Aconcagua mountain, the Associated Press reported.
Aconcagua is 22,841 feet tall and is the tallest peak in the Western and Southern Hemispheres, the AP reported.
Tyler climbed the mountain with his Father Kevin and a Tibetan sherpa who had made the trip many times, according to the AP. The three made it to the top in time for Christmas Eve.
The climbers made it to the top with no major issues, though the cold and height have claimed the lives of more than 100 climbers, according to the AP.
"You can really see the world's atmosphere up there. All the clouds are under you, and it's really cold," Tyler told the AP. "It doesn't look anything like a kid's drawing of a mountain. It's probably as big as a house at the summit, and then it's a sheer drop."
Almost 7,000 people obtain permits to climb Aconcagua yearly, but only 30 percent make it to the top, according to Nicolas Garcia who handled Tyler and Kevin's paperwork, the AP reported. He added climbers under the age of 14 are usually not allowed, so Tyler's father had to make a special plea for the Argentinian judge to allow him to climb the summit.
"Any kid can really do this, all they have to do is try. And set their mind to the goal," Tyler said, the AP reported. He said he worked out twice a day for a year and a half prior to the climb.
Tyler also fundraised for CureDuchenne which funds muscular dystrophy research as part of his climb, the AP reported.
"I think Tyler's record speaks for itself and because I think he's doing it for a good cause, he's doing it to help other people, I think the judge recognized that," Kevin, his father who is an emergency medical technician, told the AP. Tyler's mother is a pediatric neuropsychologist.
"Most people think we as parents are pushing Tyler to do this, when it's completely the opposite. I wouldn't climb it if I didn't have to, but my wife makes me do it to keep watch on him," Kevin said, according to the AP.
"He's a great dad," Tyler told the AP, adding that "at 20,000 feet, he wanted to turn around but I kept him going. And the day we were getting off the mountain, he had a blister and it popped ... He made it to the summit and everything but that dang blister made him ride a mule."
Before Tyler, Aconcagua's youngest climber was Matthew Moniz, 10, of Boulder, Colorado, who climbed the mountain in 2008, according to the AP.
