5-Year-Old Twins Become the Youngest to Summit Mount Shasta

Every summer on Mount Shasta there is plenty of discussion about records summiting the 14,180-foot mountain. Outdoor athletes from around the world travel to the sacred volcano to attempt variations of Fastest Known Times and climbing records. But you don’t hear a lot about age records, and that’s exactly what happened on the mountain this month.

5-year-old twins Matthew and Arabella Adams have there fair share of experience summiting mountains. In a little over a year, they were able to climb to the top of four summits over 14,000 feet with their completion of the Mount Shasta summit on September 5. They are believed to be the youngest people to ever summit the mountain.

The accomplishment was posted to their social media pages, dubbed “Super Hiking Twins,” where you can see how they accomplished the feat:

How does a parent get their two 5-year-olds to finish an accomplishment that is even difficult for adults? Apparently very slowly and safely.

The crew took two full days to complete the trek, hiking up to 11,000 feet and camping the first day, and finishing the descent by 8:30 pm on the second day. The video shows the slow and careful nature of the adventurous twins, who braved the steep inclines and rocky hills slowly but surely. In the end, they hiked for 22 hours over two days to finish the climb.

There is no officials record for youngest to climb Mount Shasta, but the holder of the designation was Mason Gurney, who climbed the mountain in 2019 at the ripe age of 7. That record is now held by Matthew and Arabella, who have also summited Mt Whitney (14,508′), White Mountain (14,252′) and Mt. Langley (14,032′).