Naperville Teen Aims To Set Record, Inspire Others With Everest Climb

NAPERVILLE, IL — Since Lucy Westlake was 7 years old, she has been climbing mountains with her father, Rodney. The 18-year-old Naperville native recently set out on her loftiest conquest yet, a trek to climb Mount Everest and become the youngest American woman in history to reach the 29,000-foot summit.

Talking to Lucy Westlake about mountain climbing is like talking to an average teenager about video games: It's just part of her everyday life.

The Road to Everest

Westlake summited Mount Rainier at 11, conquered Mount Kilimanjaro at 12, climbed Mount Elbrus in Europe at 15, made it to the peak of Denali at 17 and reached the summit of Aconcagua at 18. At more than 22,000 feet, Aconcagua was Westlake's tallest mountain to date.

Lucy and dad, Rodney Westlake, flew out Thursday to head to Mount Everest, where he and some friends and family members will hike with her to the mountain's base camp at 17,000 feet.

For the remainder of the hike, it'll just be Lucy, her pack, her sherpa and their supplies.

“I’m really excited," Lucy told Patch before she left for the trip. She explained that she's "not super scared," despite the glacial surfaces and dangerously icy crevasses she'll encounter on Everest.

“I’ve climbed so many mountains and Denali is very similar [to Everest] technical-wise," she added.

Years of climbing have helped foster this sense of confidence in Westlake, but she told Patch it wasn't always this easy to overcome her fears. She said she hasn't been scared of heights since she and Rodney climbed Gannett Peak, which looms 13,000 feet over the landscape of Bridger-Teton National Forest in Wyoming.

Westlake remembers hiking across a 2-foot-wide "knife-edge" trail that had a sheer drop-off on either side. She and her dad were using ropes to traverse the section, and she started to become fearful that her father would fall.

She told Patch, "I kept repeating in my mind, 'The only thing to fear is fear itself.'"

"After I got up and down that mountain, I've never been afraid of heights since," she said. “I really had trust after that."

She added, "I could climb these mountains. I could stand on these slopes and not fall.”

Her Everest trek is expected to last anywhere between one and two months, Westlake said, noting that inclement weather can cause delays. When she's done, she'll still be 18, making her the youngest American woman to complete the climb.

If she is able to summit Everest without using supplemental oxygen, Westlake will be the youngest woman ever to do so.

After Everest

Pushing past personal challenges and setting new goals such as the Everest climb come easily to Westlake, who says her life mantra is 'limits are perceived.'"

"That’s what I try to live out, especially in the mountains," she adds.

By the time she was 12, Lucy had reached the highest point in 48 of the 50 states in the United States. Her goal to summit Everest is part of an overarching dream of to achieving a longtime goal to be the youngest person to complete The Explorers' Grand Slam.

To achieve The Explorers' Grand Slam, someone must reach the highest summits on each continent and ski the North and South Poles. Since Westlake has already summited Kilimanjaro, Denali, Aconcagua and Elbrus, she'll have three more mountains (Puncak Jaya, Vinson and Kosciuszko) and both poles left to conquer once she returns from Everest.

The previous record was set by a 20-year-old woman, and Westlake acknowledges that it'll be harder to find time to climb once she starts college. Westlake, who graduated from Naperville North a semester early, will attend the University of Southern California as a Division 1 athlete, competing in track and cross-country.

She plans to pursue a career that will help her become an influencer in the global crisis of water shortages and sanitation.

Westlake said, "I love trying to have a higher purpose in everything I do."

Reaching For the Clouds

That higher purpose propels Westlake to keep on climbing. She said she hopes to shatter the stereotype that "you have to be a huge, buff middle-aged man" to climb mountains.

"Whatever you think you can do, you can do so much more," Westlake said. "I’ve had to prove my worth a lot in the mountains."

She hopes to be a role model who inspires young girls — and other people — to realize they "can be anything" and can reach new summits, whether atop a physical peak or by climbing "whatever mountains they have in their life."

"Your perception of yourself can be wrong," she adds. "Sometimes the only limits are what you say you can do."