
The 13-year-old daughter of poor Indian farmers who became the youngest girl to climb Mount Everest said Wednesday that she "shed joyful tears" at the summit after a grueling climb across difficult terrain and personal fear.

Nepal requires climbers to be at least 16 years old to scale its peaks, but Malavath Poorna said she and a team of Nepalese guides climbed the 8,850-meter (29,035-foot) mountain on May 25 from the northern side in Tibet. There are no age restrictions in China.
"It was very difficult. Every step is a dangerous step," a smiling Poorna told reporters in New Delhi, describing steep slopes, exposed rocks, deep crevasses and extreme cold that went below minus 40 degrees Celsius (minus 40 Fahrenheit).

The climb was verified by the China Tibet Mountaineering Association in Lhasa, making Malavath the youngest girl to climb Everest. American Jordan Romero, from Big Bear, California, became the youngest boy at age 13 to reach the summit — also from the Tibetan side — in 2010.

The expedition was sponsored by the Andhra Pradesh Social Welfare Residential Educational Institution Society as part of its program to encourage and help underprivileged students in India.