Southern California runner moving mountains

Limits are perceived. 

This is the life motto of Lucy Westlake, cross country and track and field student-athlete at Southern California. While the motto has guided her to athletic success throughout her running career, it has also allowed her to break barriers in another physically and mentally challenging sport: mountaineering. 

Westlake discovered mountaineering through her family at an early age. With a love for adventure and the outdoors, the family discovered state high-pointing, or climbing to the highest point in every state. After embarking upon several road trips around the country throughout her childhood, Westlake set a world record as the youngest female to summit the highest location in each of the lower 48 states. She eventually reached all 50, setting the world record as the youngest female to do so at age 17. Her passion for the sport took off from there. 

“It was just a really cool experience to get into mountaineering,” she said. “I really fell in love with it. I liked the adventure and being outdoors. I loved it all, just pushing my body … so I wanted to continue doing it.” 

As a lifelong competitive distance runner, Westlake was no stranger to pushing her body to its limits. Competing in her first 5-kilometer race alongside her father at age 4, she developed a passion for the sport at an early age and eagerly joined her school’s cross country team in first grade. Her competitive nature allowed her to find success, prompting her to join a club team in third grade and eventually the high school team. 

While she remained focused on academics and training for cross country and track throughout high school, Westlake was simultaneously developing a strong physical and mental foundation for an unexpected challenge she would face weeks before her high school graduation: summiting the highest peak in the world. 

While some individuals plan and train for years to summit Mount Everest, Westlake received word a few months in advance that funding was available for her to make the expedition up the 29,032-foot peak. Faced with the choice to embrace a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, she simply couldn’t say no. On May 12, 2022, Westlake became the youngest American woman to summit Mount Everest at age 18. Having had little time to prepare for the expedition, she credits her running fitness with allowing her to complete the grueling and technical climb. 

“Up until very recently, all of my mountaineering training, for Everest and all these really big mountains, has just been running training,” she said. “I never had a problem fitness-wise in the mountains.” 

The expedition went smoothly, lasting only 27 days rather than the expected 40 to 60. Reflecting on the experience, Westlake recalls the unparalleled feeling of reaching the top of the world. 

“It was probably my favorite experience I’ve ever had in the mountains,” she said. “The stars aligned, and it was just a perfect experience.” 

Completing this expedition provided Westlake with validation that she is a talented mountaineer and can continue to pursue the sport at a high level. However, as mountaineering is historically male-dominated, Westlake remembers not always feeling this way. Often the youngest and only female on expeditions, she recalls being viewed differently by those within the climbing community. 

“I was always seen as the weak link on the expedition,” she said. “It was assumed that everyone was going to have to carry some of the weight for me. Being very competitive, I wanted to be the strongest on the team and one of the leaders despite my age and gender. I didn’t want that to define me.” 

Eager to prove her strength and change the narrative, Westlake consistently volunteered for extra jobs on expeditions. 

“I wanted to lead by example and be that embodiment of how young people and women are strong,” she said. “I wanted to prove that we can be the leaders on expeditions. But then I decided to do more … I actually wanted to initiate change.” 

To help initiate this change, Westlake began working with the AWE Summit Scholarship Foundation, whose mission is to advance gender equity on and off the mountain. Recognizing the financial burdens of mountaineering, the foundation provides scholarships for women and teaches them the skills necessary to become self-sufficient on expeditions. Through her work with the foundation, Westlake was able to help fund three 14-year-old and two 17-year-old girls for a mountaineering expedition to Mount Baker in Washington. She was also able to co-lead the expedition, which was organized and led entirely by women. 

“It was just such a cool dynamic,” she said. “Getting that positive first experience in the mountains for those women was such a cool thing. I really felt like they left with the skills and abilities to pursue their dreams in mountaineering.” 

Just as it did with running and mountaineering, Westlake’s passion for advocacy began at a young age. Throughout her life, she has also used her platform to advocate for access to safe drinking water for individuals around the world. At age 13, during a trip to Africa to climb the continent’s highest peak, Mount Kilimanjaro, Westlake made a stop in a rural village in Uganda to install a chlorine generator in a community without access to safe drinking water. This jumpstarted a commitment to clean water advocacy that has included mission trips, fundraising and climbing mountains to inspire others to fight for the cause. Currently working toward a degree in public policy, Westlake eventually hopes to pursue a career in international water policy.

At just 20 years old, Westlake has been widely recognized for a lifetime’s worth of remarkable achievements and advocacy efforts. In 2022, she was honored as the Billie Jean King Youth Leadership Recipient at the ESPY Awards and was recognized as a History Maker through the Women’s Sports Foundation Annual Salute to Women in Sports. She also received the Gloria Barron Prize for Young Heroes Award. 

As Westlake has faced injury throughout her collegiate running career, mountaineering and her work in the community have reminded her of her passions and abilities outside of the sport when she has been sidelined from competing. Her expeditions have also allowed her to continue to push her mental and physical limits. She said that her experiences with both sports have allowed her to develop as a holistic athlete and individual. 

“I definitely would not be the mountaineer I am without running or the runner I am without mountaineering,” she said. “It’s such a similar mindset. With running, you really have to be super mentally tough … it’s just you on the line with your training. And that’s very similar to mountaineering. When it comes down to it, it’s just you and the mountain.”

Westlake said her dream is to eventually have her own adventure company catered toward women that will allow individuals to receive funding and pursue their dreams in mountaineering. For now, she continues to pay it forward while chasing her dreams both in the mountains and on the track. This summer, she will serve as a summer guide at Mount Baker in Washington while continuing to train for cross country and track and field competition. She eventually hopes to become the first woman to summit the Canadian high points, a feat that has only been accomplished by five individuals worldwide. As she has throughout her life, she continues to believe that she is capable of anything she sets her mind to. Most importantly, she believes the same is true for all others who have the courage to dream big.

“‘Limits are perceived’ applies to both the limits you put on yourself and the limits others put on you,” Westlake said. “I think if you really believe in yourself wholeheartedly and go after everything that you are passionate about, this world (could) completely change. Don’t let what other people say you can and can’t do define you.”