4-Year-Old Girl Climbs New Hampshire 48, Sets Record

Last month, 4-year-old Lydia Pearson broke a record by becoming the youngest person to run the New Hampshire 48.

The toddler from Webster, New Hampshire, started walking with her mother when she was just a few weeks old.

“We did our first 4,000-footer when she was 2 months old,” says her mother, Whitney Pearson, 31, who documents their travels on Instagram.

As a baby, her mother carried her in a backpack. Lydia walked her first mile on her own two feet before she was 2. She reached her first summit on her own two feet when she was 2. And just after she turned 3, she began climbing 4,000-foot mountains.

“I like spending time outside with her,” her mother says. “I also think it’s important, especially in today’s world, to unplug, just get outside, no screen time, get away from your phone. I think that’s hard these days, and I think we try to do that as much as we can.”

On June 16, Lydia officially completed her ascent of all 48 of the state’s 4,000-plus foot mountains, known as the New Hampshire 48.

The young boy who had held the record before her accompanied Lydia on her final walk, “which was so cool,” her mother says.

Lydia’s little sister, 17-month-old Demi, was also present for the big moment.

“She was in the backpack on all of Lydia’s walks. She always comes with me,” Whitney says.

As they climb, the proud mother enjoys watching her daughter overcome the obstacles on the path.

“The best thing is when things are a little bit hard for her, and she has to work through it a little bit, and then she realizes the reward,” she says. “I think it’s really cool when she struggles a little bit sometimes and it’s hard for her, because I think that’s the most rewarding thing for her. So just being able to look through her eyes and say, ‘Wow, I did that and that was hard.'”

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Lydia is an active, busy girl. She plays softball, dances, takes swimming lessons, and wants to play soccer in the fall. She has even climbed mountains in her swimsuit and stopped at the top for a pizza lunch.

Now that she has achieved her first goal, she and her mother climb the mountains in Vermont.

“They’re tough trails and some of them are pretty long,” Whitney says. “She’s like, ‘This is so cool!’”

Her mother is into ultra running, and when she goes alone, she tries to go fast.

“But now that I’m going with Lydia, I have to slow down a lot,” she said. “So all the trails that I’ve done, now that I’m doing them at her pace… I’ve seen so much more. So that’s cool, it’s a little bit slower.”

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