An 18-year-old student is now the youngest US woman to climb Everest — fueled by Oreos, cardio, and $48,000

• Lucy Westlake became the youngest US woman to summit Everest this year, at age 18.
• She shared her diet, training, and fundraising methods with Insider.

Lucy Westlake summited Mount Everest at just 18 years old, fueled by gummy bears, Oreos, and lots of ramen.

"At high altitudes, everyone kind of craves something different," she said. "You really have to know your body at altitude, and I just need sugar."

Westlake, who became the youngest US woman to climb the world's highest peak in May, said that while summiting Everest was "definitely a challenge" physically, it was "hardest for me emotionally."

Having just made history, she recently moved from her home in suburban Chicago to attend the University of Southern California and run cross-country.

But she's not done climbing yet — and now has her sights set on another record-breaking mountain-capping feat, before she turns 20.

Westlake started training in first grade

Westlake has been lacing up and tackling big climbs ever since she was little, always trekking alongside her dad.

From third to seventh grade Westlake was homeschooled, and "education was really through experience," she said.

That period of her childhood is also when she "knocked out the most mountains" on the US high point list. She tried to climb the tallest mountain in the country at age 13, but came away without reaching the summit.

Last summer, when she finally scaled Alaska's Denali, the ascent won her the title of youngest female climber of all 50 state high points.

After graduating high school early, she headed to Kenya, with the purpose of visiting some clean drinking water projects she supports. While there, she ran with a local high school team that "literally trained some of the fastest runners in the world."

For Westlake, running has always been the best training for her climbs — routinely logging about 40 miles a week with her cross country team at school in Illinois, plus 50-minute weightlifting sessions.

In Kenya, she upped her weekly mileage to 70 miles at an altitude of 6,500 feet in the Cherang'any Hills, which was "more than enough" to prepare her for the tallest mountain on Earth, she said.

After all that footwork, plus a week back home sleeping in a special altitude-mimicking tent, she headed to Nepal.

Gummies, Oreos, and warm ramen fueled her up the mountain

Westlake is lactose intolerant, and generally avoids both dairy and gluten when she's at home. She prioritizes iron-rich foods in her diet like steak, and fresh produce.

"I'm like a fruitaholic," she said. Smoothies are her go-to. "Half of the food I eat is probably just fruit," she guessed.

But her diet shifts completely when she's trekking.

"In the mountains, I'm not dairy and gluten free," she said. "You just can't be, honestly, there's no freeze-dried meals that are like that."

On Everest, she ate a lot of steaming bowls of ramen, and snacked on fast-acting sugars. In addition to the Oreos, her favorites included chocolate and gummies.

Climbing Everest is expensive

Due in part to the trek's steep price tag, this was Westlake's first summit without her father by her side. (Generally, summiting Everest costs around $50,000, at the very cheapest rates.)

Westlake says the expense of climbing is "one thing I really don't like about the mountains," because it makes mountaineering a very elite sport, with the price tag being a huge "limiting" factor for so many.

She managed to raise over $25,700 for her monthlong trip on GoFundMe, and received another $12,500 in grant money from cereal maker Grape Nuts. That scholarship, in tandem with a "really good price" from her tour group is what made her $48,000 trip possible, she said.

A grueling climb up: Crowds of climbers, a dead body, and loneliness

Westlake experienced some of the epic traffic jams Everest is known for on her way to the top.

She reached the apex of the mountain on the "first really good day" in May when meteorologists were predicting excellent summiting conditions. Many other climbers had the exact same idea.

"There were so many people up there," she said. "I don't know the exact number, but oh my gosh, it felt like there was at least 100."

That "dead stop traffic" is a result of the fact that there is just one rope to the summit on the Nepalese side of the mountain, which all the climbers must clip into. Their stop-and-go pace made Westlake, bundled up in a full-body snowsuit and oxygen mask, very drowsy.

"I was literally trying not to fall asleep," she said.

Together with her sherpa, they devised a way to cut the line. They would slip to the side, clip their safety lines to one another, and hike past other climbers while tied together.

The untouched snow they plodded through on the sidelines was deeper, and tougher to climb through. Finally, the traffic subsided and they reached the summit where things were quieter.

Along the way, Westlake noticed a fair amount of trash littering the path (especially Coke bottles), and glimpsed the corpse of one climber who "died very near the top" last year.

The body was still bundled up, face mask and all, and Westlake said if she didn't know better, she'd have thought it was just someone resting for a bit on their way up.

For Westlake, those moments were challenging, but the most difficult part of climbing Everest was emotional.

"It was the first climb I did without my dad," Westlake said, "So I got pretty lonely up there. It was just me and my sherpa, and he was amazing — but not the most talkative person. So it did get lonely, and I missed home a lot."

Staying calm under pressure: 'I heard the ice shift'

Westlake has trekked on several continents, and said the Himalayas are the "most beautiful mountains I've ever seen."

"You have this beautiful mix of green lush mountains that go into these beautiful white peaks," she said. "The mix of ecosystems up there is just beautiful."

The awesome natural beauty can give way to moments that are scary, surprising, and frustrating. At one point, when Westlake and her sherpa had just stopped for a break, "we were putting down our backpacks and I heard the ice shift a little bit."

She didn't think much of it. The mountain often rumbles from deep within with the weight of shifting ice. It's just one of the odd sounds Westlake experienced on the mountain, along with the whistle of the wind, and the popping of ice when it's really cold at night, which she said almost sounds like popcorn.

But something about the way the ice sounded on the path that day worried her sherpa. She remembers him telling her, "put your backpack on, we need to go now.'"

"That was the part I was scared most of the whole climb, because I know he wouldn't say that unless there was real danger." The pair "hiked really fast for 10 minutes" before it felt safe to slow down again.

She's hoping for a new Seven Summits record

Now that Westlake's ticked off Everest, her sights are set on another batch of peaks: the Explorer's Grand Slam. She'll trek across the globe, touching both poles, and summiting the tallest peak on every continent.

Westlake is about halfway through the journey now, with four of her seven summits completed. Come winter break, she's hoping to climb Mount Vinson in Antarctica.

If she finishes it all before she turns 20, she'll be the youngest person to have visited the world's highest and farthest reaches.

It's a long endeavor, but she's discovered that "what's gonna change you" isn't reaching the top, "it's the getting there."

"At those moments, that's really where you become a new person," she added. "That's kind of why I do it."