Crina “Coco” Popescu, 16, has become the world’s youngest climber and the first woman worldwide to have ended the Seven Volcanoes circuit – climbing the highest volcanoes on seven continents – after having climbed Mount Sidley (4,285 metres) in Antarctica on Jan. 24.
Born in Rasnov, Brasov County (a mountainous area in central Romania) Crina Popescu has been doing mountain escalations since the age of 6, alongside her father. Coco was named athlete of the year by the Romanian Federation of Mountaineering and Climbing. She climbed in 2010 no less than four of the globe’s peaks as part of the Seven Volcanoes and Seven Summits circuits – the volcanoes Giluwe in Papua and Pico de Orizaba in Mexico and the highest mountains in Oceania and North America: Carstensz Pyramid and McKinley, respectively.