just 10 days before her high school graduation, 18-year-old Lucy Westlake became the youngest American woman to reach the top of Mt. Everest.
The Naperville, Illinois teen reached Everest's top — roughly 29,032 feet — on May 12 at 5:30 a.m. according to an Instagram post Friday morning, after an expedition that took 26 days.
"Looking up at the summit from camp 4 the day before our summit push, it truly looked impossible, but that night at 9 p.m. we began our climb and 8.5 hour later we did it!!," she wrote in a caption on Instagram along with a series of photos documenting the impressive feat.
Westlake is currently working to complete the "Explorers Grand Slam" — a challenge that includes summiting the seven highest mountains of every continent (Everest, Aconcagua, Denali, Kilimanjaro, Elbrus, Vinson Massif, and Puncak Jaya and Kosciuszko) and visiting the North and South poles.
She's been documenting her adventures on lucyclimbs.com. In 2017, Westlake climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro, followed by Mt. Elbrus in 2019 and Denali in June of last year. In January, she reached the top of Aconcagua, also known as the "Mountain of Death.
After Everest, she has just four to go to complete the grand slam: Puncak Jaya (a.k.a.) Carstensz Pyramid, Vinson Massif and both Poles.
Breaking records isn't new to Westlake. Last year, at the age of 17 became the youngest woman to reach the highest points in all 50 states. In 2016, at the age of 12, she became the youngest female to climb the lower 48 state highpoints.
In her celebratory Instagram post, the teen also shared photos of some of the views from her climb and images of some of the people who helped get her to the top, including her sherpa, Mingma.
"Big shout out to Mingma, the absolute greatest sherpa in the world who has now climbed Everest 16 times (he's crazy) and Extreme Climbers for backing me up the whole way (love you Pemba)," she continued in her Instagram caption. "And of course, my biggest sponsors/emotional supporters: my family💕 Thank you all for believing in all my insane dreams."
On Thursday, Westlake's mother shared the news from the teen's Instagram account that she had reached the top writing. "💥AMERICAN RECORD 💥 Lucy stood on top of the world at 5:40 a.m. (Nepal time) making her the youngest American woman to summit Everest."