{"id":51447,"date":"2019-08-07T03:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-08-07T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/sports\/first-grader-summits-five-mountains-in-juneau\/"},"modified":"2019-08-07T12:13:25","modified_gmt":"2019-08-07T20:13:25","slug":"first-grader-summits-five-mountains-in-juneau","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/sports\/first-grader-summits-five-mountains-in-juneau\/","title":{"rendered":"First-grader summits five mountains in Juneau"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\t\t\t\t<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/-jjaDru3xY0\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<p>One local first-grader took his love of hiking to new extreme elevations.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<p>Rowan Taintor, 6, summited five peaks in Juneau within two months this summer: Mount Juneau, Jumbo, Roberts, McGinnis and Thunder Mountain. The five peaks, known informally as the &ldquo;Big 5,&rdquo; stand between 2,900 and 4,200 feet.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<p><ins>[<a href=\"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/sports\/photos-treadwell-arena-opens-for-season\/\" target=\"_blank\">Photos: Treadwell Arena opens for season<\/a>]<\/ins><\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<p>&ldquo;I just like exercise and well, (the) view,&rdquo; Rowan said outside his family&rsquo;s North Douglas house on Tuesday. &ldquo;You get to see a good view at the top and it&rsquo;s really fun.&rdquo;<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<p>The idea came to Rowan at the beginning of the summer while they were hiking up Mount Juneau, said Rowan&rsquo;s dad, Matt Taintor.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"post-attachment in-story\"><a href='https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/18007595_web1_IMG_4557.jpg'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2048\" height=\"1536\" src=\"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/18007595_web1_IMG_4557.jpg\" class=\"attachment-full size-full\" alt=\"Rowan Taintor on top of Mount Roberts on Monday July 8, 2019. (Courtesy Photo | Shireen Taintor)\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/18007595_web1_IMG_4557.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/18007595_web1_IMG_4557-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/18007595_web1_IMG_4557-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/18007595_web1_IMG_4557-640x480.jpg 640w, https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/18007595_web1_IMG_4557-1200x900.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/18007595_web1_IMG_4557-1920x1440.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1199px) 98vw, 1200px\" \/><\/a><p class=\"p-exclude\">Rowan Taintor on top of Mount Roberts on Monday July 8, 2019. (Courtesy Photo | Shireen Taintor)<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<p>&ldquo;We were hiking with a guy that had said he planned on hiking the &lsquo;Big 5&rsquo; this summer and that just kind of stuck in his head,&rdquo; Matt said. &ldquo;And so whenever I had a day off and it was a nice day, he wanted to climb a mountain. He kept wanting to climb McGinnis and I told him we better do the four shorter ones first to make sure that both of us were in shape to do it.&rdquo;<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<p>The duo conquered Mount Jumbo, Mount Roberts and Thunder Mountain in July, and finally Mount McGinnis last Friday. Just like the previous four mountains, Rowan had no problem with McGinnis &mdash; the tallest and longest of the five peaks &mdash; and was the first one in the hiking group to the top.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"post-attachment in-story\"><a href='https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/18007595_web1_IMG_4331.jpg'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1800\" height=\"2400\" src=\"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/18007595_web1_IMG_4331.jpg\" class=\"attachment-full size-full\" alt=\"Rowan Taintor on top of Mount Juneau on Thursday, May 30, 2019. (Courtesy Photo | Shireen Taintor)\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/18007595_web1_IMG_4331.jpg 1800w, https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/18007595_web1_IMG_4331-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/18007595_web1_IMG_4331-768x1024.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/18007595_web1_IMG_4331-640x853.jpg 640w, https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/18007595_web1_IMG_4331-1024x1365.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/18007595_web1_IMG_4331-1200x1600.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1199px) 98vw, 1200px\" \/><\/a><p class=\"p-exclude\">Rowan Taintor on top of Mount Juneau on Thursday, May 30, 2019. (Courtesy Photo | Shireen Taintor)<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<p>Rowan said sandwiches and &ldquo;gummy worms and gummy rabbits and jelly beans&rdquo; fueled his adventures.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<p>It turned out Jumbo &mdash; not McGinnis &mdash; was the most difficult hike, according to Rowan.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<p>&ldquo;You have to do a lot of scrambling over the roots and rocks,&rdquo; said Rowan, who completed all five hikes under his own power.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"post-attachment in-story\"><a href='https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/18007595_web1_IMG_7072.jpg'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1800\" height=\"2400\" src=\"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/18007595_web1_IMG_7072.jpg\" class=\"attachment-full size-full\" alt=\"Rowan Taintor on top of Mount Jumbo on Friday, July 5, 2019. (Courtesy Photo | Shireen Taintor)\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/18007595_web1_IMG_7072.jpg 1800w, https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/18007595_web1_IMG_7072-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/18007595_web1_IMG_7072-768x1024.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/18007595_web1_IMG_7072-640x853.jpg 640w, https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/18007595_web1_IMG_7072-1024x1365.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/18007595_web1_IMG_7072-1200x1600.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1199px) 98vw, 1200px\" \/><\/a><p class=\"p-exclude\">Rowan Taintor on top of Mount Jumbo on Friday, July 5, 2019. (Courtesy Photo | Shireen Taintor)<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<p>Matt said the challenge spoke of his son&rsquo;s mental toughness.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<p>&ldquo;Kids can do a lot more than we give them credit for I believe, both physically and intellectually,&rdquo; Matt said. &ldquo;I think it more has to do with wanting to do it than that ability physically.&rdquo;<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"post-attachment in-story\"><a href='https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/18007595_web1_IMG_0059.jpg'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2048\" height=\"1535\" src=\"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/18007595_web1_IMG_0059.jpg\" class=\"attachment-full size-full\" alt=\"Rowan Taintor on top of Thunder Mountain on Thursday, July 25, 2019. (Courtesy Photo | Shireen Taintor)\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/18007595_web1_IMG_0059.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/18007595_web1_IMG_0059-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/18007595_web1_IMG_0059-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/18007595_web1_IMG_0059-640x480.jpg 640w, https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/18007595_web1_IMG_0059-1200x899.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/18007595_web1_IMG_0059-1920x1439.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1199px) 98vw, 1200px\" \/><\/a><p class=\"p-exclude\">Rowan Taintor on top of Thunder Mountain on Thursday, July 25, 2019. (Courtesy Photo | Shireen Taintor)<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<p>&#8226; Contact sports reporter Nolin Ainsworth at 523-2272 or nainsworth@juneauempire.com. <\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<p><hr \/><\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<p><b>\u2022 Contact sports reporter Nolin Ainsworth at 523-2272 or nainsworth@juneauempire.com. Follow Empire Sports on Twitter at @akempiresports.<\/b><\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<p><hr \/><\/p>\n\t\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Not bad for a 6-year-old. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":425,"featured_media":51448,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":9,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,6],"tags":[319],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-51447","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-home","category-sports","tag-video"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51447","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/425"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51447"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51447\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51448"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51447"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=51447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}