A 13-year-old from California has become the youngest climber to scale Mount Everest, reaching the summit of the highest mountain in the world on Saturday.

Jordan Romero stood atop the peak's highest point, 8,850 metres above sea level, early Saturday despite dangerously high winds at the summit.

"The team just called in and confirmed that they are standing on top of Mt. Everest -- the highest peak in the world. Their dreams have now come true," said a statement on Jordan's blog. "Everyone sounded unbelievably happy."

The eighth grader from Big Bear Lake, Calif., reached the top with a team that included his father Paul and three Sherpa guides.

Previously the youngest climber to scale Mt. Everest had been Nepal's Temba Tsheri, who was 16 when he accomplished the feat on May 23, 2001.

The first thing Jordan did when he reached the summit was call his mother on a satellite telephone.

"He says, ‘Mom, I'm calling you from the top of the world,'" Leigh Anne Drake told The Associated Press. "There were lots of tears and ‘I love you! I love you!'"

"I just told him to get his butt back home."

Jordan's team took advantage of a break in Everest's notoriously fickle weather to make its push to the top, after being stalled by winds of up to 150 kilometres per hour, said Mountaineering Department official Tilak Pandey.

The climbing team reached the peak hours ahead of schedule, according to team spokesperson Rob Bailey.

"The first thing, they all hugged each other and said, 'I love you, I can't believe we're finally here' and started crying," he said from the United States.

At the summit, Jordan left behind his lucky rabbit's foot and planted some seeds that a monk at a local Buddhist monastery had given him for luck, Bailey said.

The team must still make the descent over the next few days, a trip that can be almost as perilous as the climb to the top and which claims lives every year.

Also Saturday, officials said a Nepalese Sherpa who lives in Utah broke his own world record by climbing Everest for the 20th time.

Apa, who like many Sherpas goes by only one name, went up with fellow climbers on a mission to collect garbage, a growing environmental problem on the mountain.

Among the teams reaching the summit was Canadian Elia Saikaly, an Ottawa-born film maker. "We did it! We stood on top of the world! On our way back down!" Saikaly sent on his Twitter account Saturday.

Because of his age, Jordan had to approach Everest from the north side, in Tibet, since Nepal does not allow climbers under 16 to attempt the climb.

Other countries have age limits as well: Jordan's parents had to get permit from a judge in Argentina to climb Aconcagua, the tallest peak in South America.

Jordan is now one climb away from his quest to conquer the highest peaks on all seven continents.

The curly haired teenager climbed Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa when he was 9 years old and needs only to scale the Vinson Massif in Antarctica.

He has said that his goal was inspired by a painting in his school hallway of the seven continents' highest summits.

"Every step I take is finally toward the biggest goal of my life, to stand on top of the world," Jordan said earlier on his blog.

Jordan's team leaves for Antarctica in December, and Jordan's mother calls the 5,140-metre mountain "a piece of cake" compared to Everest.

Although his story has attracted attention around the world, Jordan will not be able to give interviews until he returns to an advance base camp, which could take a couple of days, Bailey said. Climbers stay overnight at three or four camps before the summit, depending on their route and pace.

Jordan carried a number of good luck charms, including a pair of kangaroo testicles given to him by a friend who has cancer.

"That's the one that probably meant the most," Bailey said.

Jordan is just the latest in a wave of young adventurers. Earlier this month, 16-year-old Australian Jessica Watson became the youngest person to sail around the globe solo, nonstop and unassisted. Thousands lined Sydney Harbor to cheer as she cruised past the finish line in her pink yacht.

A Dutch court late last year blocked an even younger sailor, 14-year-old Laura Dekker, from pursuing a similar round-the-world voyage.

And in January, 17-year-old Johnny Collinson of Utah became the youngest person to climb the highest peaks on all seven continents.