KOFU, Yamanashi Pref.: An 11-year-old Japanese girl has successfully climbed Mount Kilimanjaro, the highest peak in Africa, it was learned Monday.

Rei Banno, an elementary school sixth grader, reached the summit of the 5,895-meter mountain in Tanzania on Thursday morning local time and made the descent on Friday afternoon.

“I’m glad I was able to climb the mountain of my dreams and see a glacier,” Banno said in a statement released through her mother, Naomi, 49, who accompanied her. “It was the most beautiful view I’ve ever seen.”

“I want to thank everyone who supported me,” she said. The young climber was sponsored by businesses in her hometown of Kofu, Yamanashi Prefecture, west of Tokyo, and elsewhere.

Banno began mountaineering at the age of 4, conquering the 100 most famous mountains in Yamanashi at 6.

She began to voice her eagerness to scale Mount Kilimanjaro around that time and decided to embark on the challenge in the final year of her elementary school life.

JIJI Press