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Fight On to Lucy!
Youngest American woman to climb Everest, 18, says being away from family was ‘hardest part’
The teen told TODAY that it was "really tough" being away from everyone she knew for 26 days.
Lucy Westlake doesn’t need to wait until she graduates high school to soar to new heights.
On Thursday, Westlake, 18, became the youngest American woman to scale Mount Everest’s summit at more than 29,000 feet, which is roughly the equivalent of 18 Empire State Buildings. She accomplished the feat less than two weeks before she graduates high school.
The teenager from Illinois, who’s been climbing since she was 7, is also the youngest woman to reach the highest point in all 50 states and has her eye on finishing the so-called Explorer’s Grand Slam, which involves climbing the highest mountain on all seven continents, as well as go to the North and South Poles.
Westlake is set to compete as a cross-country runner on the University of Southern California’s track and field when she enrolls in the fall. For the moment, though, she is reveling in her latest feat atop Mount Everest.
“It was absolutely incredible,” she told TODAY Friday morning. “Being at the top, I just couldn’t imagine that I was at the top of the world. I looked down and there’s nothing higher, but still ... I thought I was going to cry at the top.”
https://www.today.com/today/amp/rcna28690
Youngest American woman to climb Everest, 18, says being away from family was ‘hardest part’
The teen told TODAY that it was "really tough" being away from everyone she knew for 26 days.
Lucy Westlake doesn’t need to wait until she graduates high school to soar to new heights.
On Thursday, Westlake, 18, became the youngest American woman to scale Mount Everest’s summit at more than 29,000 feet, which is roughly the equivalent of 18 Empire State Buildings. She accomplished the feat less than two weeks before she graduates high school.
The teenager from Illinois, who’s been climbing since she was 7, is also the youngest woman to reach the highest point in all 50 states and has her eye on finishing the so-called Explorer’s Grand Slam, which involves climbing the highest mountain on all seven continents, as well as go to the North and South Poles.
Westlake is set to compete as a cross-country runner on the University of Southern California’s track and field when she enrolls in the fall. For the moment, though, she is reveling in her latest feat atop Mount Everest.
“It was absolutely incredible,” she told TODAY Friday morning. “Being at the top, I just couldn’t imagine that I was at the top of the world. I looked down and there’s nothing higher, but still ... I thought I was going to cry at the top.”
https://www.today.com/today/amp/rcna28690
