Climbing
Emma Schwerin, a 17-year-old student from Montana, has become the youngest American woman to summit Mount Everest, capping off an ambitious 18-month journey to climb the highest mountain on each continent. Schwerin reached the 29,029-foot summit of Everest on May 15, completing the final leg of what mountaineers call the Seven Summits—a global challenge that includes peaks such as Kilimanjaro, Aconcagua, and Antarctica’s Mount Vinson. According to Seven Summits LLC, she is now the youngest woman ever to complete the circuit.
Raised in Bozeman, Montana, Schwerin had little interest in hiking until middle school, when a classroom unit on Everest’s 1996 disaster sparked her curiosity, according to CT Insider. Within weeks, she was in Nepal, trekking 100 miles to Everest Base Camp. The experience inspired her to begin serious mountaineering alongside her father, Sam Schwerin.
Her first summit came in late 2023 with Australia’s Mount Kosciuszko. From there, she climbed progressively more demanding peaks, including Denali in Alaska, which she later described as the most difficult physically, due in part to the lack of infrastructure and the need to carry her own supplies by sled.
Schwerin trained for each expedition while continuing high school coursework at Choate Rosemary Hall in Connecticut. The school granted her time off to pursue the climbs and supported a capstone project she’s developing on the psychology of risk-taking in extreme environments. Now back in the U.S., she plans to spend the summer working with outdoor programs for teens in her hometown. She said her goal is to help others, especially young girls, build confidence through adventure.
Schwerin has not yet decided on a university, but says she plans to study sports psychology. For now, she told CT Insider that the biggest reward isn’t the record—but knowing what it took to earn it.
