US boy becomes youngest to scale Argentina's Mount Aconcagua

A nine-year-old US boy has become the youngest person to reach the summit of Argentina's Mount Aconcagua, the tallest peak in the Americas, Clarin newspaper said Friday.

Tyler Armstrong and his father climbed the 6,959-metre mountain, part of the Andes range, with the help of local guides.

The party reached the summit at around 3:30 p.m. on Christmas day.

All of the members of the climbing expedition are in good condition and have already begun their descent, Clarin said.

The Armstrongs opted for the Polish Glacier route, which is less traversed than the more "accessible" North Wall but less complicated than the treacherous South Wall, which each year attracts the world's most experienced ice and rock climbers.

The boy's father needed to obtain a special permit because Argentine law prohibits minors from climbing Aconcagua.

Tyler Armstrong is an experienced climber who previously scaled Tanzania's Mount Kilimanjaro and Mount Whitney in the US.

Aconcagua, known as the "Roof of the Americas", is located near the Chilean border in Argentina's Mendoza province, some 1,000 km from Buenos Aires.