18-year-old girl from Illinois becomes the youngest American woman to ever summit EVEREST

An 18-year-old from Illinois became the youngest American woman to ever summit Mr. Everest when she reached the top of the 29,032ft mountain in Nepal on Thursday morning.

Lucy Westlake, who has been an avid climber since age seven, summited the highest mountain in the world at 5:40 a.m. local time, following 26 grueling days of climbing.

With the help of her sherpa, Mingma, and thousands of dollars in donations on GoFundMe, she set the record on May 12.

‘It was absolutely incredible,’ she said on the Today show this morning, describing the moment she reached the summit. ‘Being at the top, I just couldn’t imagine that I was at the top of the world. Like, I looked down, and there’s no other — there’s nothing higher.’