The girl's father died when she was just 3.
A Texas 7-year-old has broken a world record as she made it to the top of Mt. Kilimanjaro’s 19,341-foot summit.
While Montannah Kenney thought it’d be a cool feat to break the record, she was more excited about the idea of being close to her father, who died when she was just 3 years old.
"She knows she has an angel looking after her and he lives in heaven," Montannah’s mom, Hollie Kenney, told InsideEdition.com. "She knew that this mountain is above the clouds so she associated that she was going to be closer to her dad in heaven."
Hollie Kenney said they had originally planned to go in October 2018, but once they realized an 8-year-old held the record, Montannah changed her mind.
Montannah told her mom, "If we’re going I would to try to break the record."
Since Montannah turns 8 in May, they decided to make the 6-and-a-half day trek up the mountain in March.
"She was ready to do it," Kenney said. "We had researched the heck out of it a year in advance. Day one was beautiful and easy. Day two through six-and-a-half was very challenging because it poured the entire time."
The mom and daughter slept in tents on the journey. Temperatures fell below freezing.
“We were frozen,” Kenney said,
But they made it. When Montannah reached the top, she had a special moment with her dad.
"It was beautiful," Kenney said. "She knew she wanted to blow kisses to him and wave and hopefully he would see her."
In completing the trek, the 7-year-old nabbed the record for the youngest girl to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro, according to records
"It was really awesome for her," Kenney said. "We celebrated after. We had a little bit of time in Tanzania. So we went on safari and we got to a local beach."
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