Emma Schwerin ’26 and her team at the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro.
By Reinah Lee ’26
While many Choate students spent winter break at home or traveling abroad, Emma Schwerin ’26 climbed Mount Kilimanjaro. At 15 years old, Schwerin is on track to reach new heights in the mountaineering world by becoming the youngest girl to climb all of the Seven Summits, the tallest mountains on each of the seven continents.
From December 31–January 6, Schwerin ascended Mount Kilimanjaro, the 19,300-foot volcano in Tanzania. Each day entailed five to eight-hour hikes. On summit day, she awoke an hour before climbing at 11 p.m., reaching the summit at 7:30 a.m. the next morning. In contrast, descending from the summit took only two hours.
Schwerin’s Kilimanjaro team consisted of seven people, including her father and their guide, Mr. Tendi Sherpa, an expert mountaineer with 14 Mount Everest summits under his belt. With a limit of one 15-kilogram bag, climbers had to prioritize essential items, which included sleeping bags, sleeping pads, and hiking gear.
Although Schwerin was physically prepared for the climb, it was still taxing. While summiting, she experienced altitude sickness, which occurs at high altitudes where oxygen availability is lower.
Schwerin’s main symptoms of altitude sickness were loss of appetite and nausea. As a result, she did not follow her carefully laid-out nutrition plan, making the hours-long stretch of hiking even more challenging.
That same night, Schwerin accidentally mixed two electrolyte drinks together, throwing off her hydration plan, leading to dehydration, fatigue, and nausea.
Schwerin’s passion for mountaineering began in eighth grade when her family traveled to the Mount Everest Base Camp in Nepal. Hailing from Montana, Schwerin was raised in a culture of outdoor enthusiasts, with her parents having already tackled Kilimanjaro around eight years ago.
At school, Schwerin trains six days a week under the guidance of trainer and accomplished mountaineer Ms. Lisa Thompson, who has climbed all of the Seven Summits and is the second American woman to climb K2, the second tallest mountain on Earth. Schwerin’s training program includes muscular endurance training, strength training, and cardio.
To prepare for lower oxygen availability, Schwerin covers the head of her bed with a tent-like structure that is attached to a device outside her room. Schwerin sets the device to gradually remove oxygen from the air, simulating oxygen levels at varying altitudes.
Now with both Mount Kilimanjaro and Mount Kosciuszko, which she summited in November 2023, under her belt, Schwerin aims to finish climbing the remaining five of the Seven Summits before the summer of 2025. She would be 17 years and two months old, breaking the current record of 17 years and eight months old. In order to achieve this, Schwerin spends all of her breaks climbing.
Schwerin will take time off of school during her junior spring to climb Mount Everest in 2025, which will take two months.
As Schwerin inches closer to her goal, she has had to make adjustments due to geopolitical constraints on Russia’s Mount Elbrus. Instead, she will summit Mont Blanc, a formidable but shorter mountain than Mount Elbrus. “It is a bit tricky because I’m trying to set a record, and some people might not really think that I did,” she said.
The greatest reward for Schwerin is seeing improvement. “My favorite part is seeing the progress I’ve made. I could probably just run a mile when I first started, and now I do seven miles, twice a week,” Schwerin said. “It’s crazy to see how far I’ve come.”
Schwerin is documenting her historic journey on her website and Instagram account, @schwerisshegoing.
