Jake Meyer

For the fictional television character, see Jake Meyer (General Hospital).

Jake Meyer (born 20 January 1984) is a British climber. He achieved fame by becoming the youngest Briton to climb Mount Everest in 2005, aged 21 years 4 months. In doing so, Meyer also became the youngest Briton to complete the Seven Summits challenge.

His "youngest Briton to climb Mount Everest" record was broken in 2006 by Rob Gauntlett who was 19 at the time.

Early life

From Tetbury in Gloucestershire, England, Meyer was educated at Beaudesert Park School, Cheam School and Marlborough College, then embarked on the study of Environmental Geoscience at Bristol University, where he was also a member of Bristol University Officer Training Corps. He has since been commissioned into the Royal Wessex Yeomanry as an Armoured Troop Leader.

Meyer began climbing at 13. Aged 15, he saw in the new millennium with his father from the crater rim of his first summit, Kilimanjaro. At 18, he climbed Mount Elbrus in Southern Russia, Europe's highest peak. In 2002, he was awarded with a Winston Churchill Memorial Trust travelling fellowship to climb Denali (aged 19), Aconcagua (aged 18) and Mount Kosciuszko (aged 19), the highest peaks in North and South America and Australia. He then climbed Mount Vinson, the highest peak in Antarctica, before attempting Everest.

Everest

Meyer ascended from the Tibetan side, via the North Col-North East Ridge route. The climb started on 2 April 2005, reaching the summit on 4 June 2005.

He was accompanied by Diahanne Gilbert, the Scottish team leader, and two Sherpas, Mingma Nuru and Anil Bhattarai.

Meyer's climb was in aid of the Children's Wish Foundation.

Records

Meyer holds several records:

• Youngest ascent of Mount Vinson (highest mountain in the Antarctic)
• Youngest solo ascent of Mount Aconcagua (highest mountain outside the Himalayas)
• Fastest British ascent of Mount McKinley/Denali in 2003 (highest mountain in North America)

Meyer was 'pipped at the post' to the title of youngest person in the world to climb the Seven Summits by 20-year-old American Danielle Fisher, who summitted three days earlier, taking the South Col route.

On 1 August 2006, Meyer's team also broke the existing world record for climbing the highest peak in each of the 48 states of the Continental USA in the shortest time.

The Freestyle Challenge was completed in 23 days 19 hours 31 minutes as Meyer reached the summit of Mount Katahdin in Maine. The British team shaved nearly six days off the existing record of 29 days, previously held by American Ben Jones.

Meyer's record held for nearly 9 years until it was broken by American's Josh and Lindsay Sanders in a time of 19 days, 7 hours and 37 minutes.