A teenager from Naperville, Illinois, has become the youngest American woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest.
18-year-old Lucy Westlake successfully reached the summit at 5:40 in the morning.
“The expedition took 26 days, but every single step was worth it,” she wrote on Instagram. “Looking up at the summit from Camp 4 the day before our summit push, it truly looked impossible, but that night at 9pm we began our climb and 8.5 hours later, we did it!! I still can’t really believe it.”
Westlake, who is getting ready to graduate from Naperville North High School, has always loved hiking and the outdoors, and pushing herself to achieve her goals and be the best she can be.
She has been running on cross country and track teams since elementary school and climbing mountains ever since she could walk.
“I started climbing because my family is very adventurous,” she told ABC 7 Chicago. “My life’s mantra is ‘limits are perceived,’ so I love pushing myself to my very limit and discovering what my body and mind can do. So what better way to do it than climb the highest mountain in the world.”
She hopes that her accomplishment will inspire other young girls to pursue their own adventures.
This is not the first mountain Westlake has climbed or the first record she has set. Prior to this, she has already become the youngest female to summit the 50 U.S. state highpoints last summer. She has also previously climbed Mount Kilimanjaro and Denali.
Her high pointing adventure began when she was just seven years old when she and her family visited Black Mountain in Kentucky. After that climb, she made it a goal to climb to the top of every state’s highest mountain.
Click here to read more about Westlake on her website, and watch her inspiring story in the video below:
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