Vanessa O’Brien is the first person to complete the “Explorers’ Extreme Trifecta” (female), reaching extremes on land, sea, and air, including Everest, Challenger Deep, and Blue Origin’s NS-22, in 3,729 days.

On August 4, 2022, Vanessa O’Brien passed the Kármán Line into sub-orbital space to reach an apogee of 351,232 feet (107km).

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Vanessa O’Brien featured in the 2024 Guinness World Records.

Vanessa O’Brien wears a portable MRI by iMedisync to measure her brain activity after her spaceflight.

Vanessa O’Brien presents a series of UN Women Flags to Executive Director, UN Women, Sima Sami Bahous.

Vanessa O’Brien, record-setting American-British explorer, takes you on a transformative journey to the top of the world’s highest mountains in this riveting and uplifting memoir, To The Greatest Heights.

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Vanessa O’Brien is a British female mountaineer, and an American female mountaineer (as a result of her dual nationality), explorer, aquanaut, astronaut, author, and public speaker.

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Author, To the Greatest Heights, Simon & Schuster (USA), Quercus (UK), Poland (Burda International) and Russia (AST).
Six Guinness World Records – Only, First, Fastest, Deepest, Farthest, Oldest:
1. Only woman to reach extremes on land, sea, and air (crossing the 100-km-high Kármán Line)
2. First woman to reach Earth’s highest and lowest point (Mt. Everest) and Deepest Point (Challenger Deep)
3. Fastest woman to climb the Seven Summits (295 days).
4. First woman to travel to the deepest and longest and reach the farthest and nearest to the Earth’s core (Chimborazo to Challenger Deep)
5. First woman to travel farthest on Earth completing the Four Poles Challenge: Mt. Everest, Challenger Deep, and skiing the Last Degree to both the North and South Poles
6. Summited K2, second tallest peak in the world at 52 years old
Mountaineering Accomplishments:
- First American woman or first British woman to summit K2 at 8,611m in 2017. Vanessa raised the UN Women’s Flag at the summit of K2 to show women’s courage and determination.
- First woman to set a speed record to complete the Explorers Grand Slam (Seven Summits plus skiing the last degree to the North and South Poles) in 11 months, and one of only eight women in the world.
- Summited five of 14 eight-thousand meter peaks, including summiting two eight-thousand-meter peaks back-to-back, eight days apart.
Submersible Accomplishments:
- First woman to traverse the Eastern Pool of Challenger Deep, Mariana Trench, spending three hours of bottom time at > 10,000 meters.
Suborbital Space Accomplishments:
- Deployed wireless MRI to measure The Overview Effect and carried the UN Women’s Flag to demonstrate women’s diversity, courage and ability to venture into the unknown.
Brand Ambassador in Print Ads, Commercial Films and during Expeditions:
1. Omega (2022 & 2020) – Blue Origin’s first flight with two women (NS-22) and Challenger Deep’s first dive with two women.
2. UN Women (2022 & 2017) – Proving women have no ceilings on Blue Origin’s NS-22 and showing women can rise to the challenge on K2.
3. Aviva (2021) – Decision School – trusting your instincts, dealing with procrastination, and following your head or your heart.
4. Diageo (2020) – Jane Walker/Be First, Keep Walking – proving women can rise to the challenge.
5. First Republic Bank (2018) – Creative options and solutions to challenges that come from living abroad and traveling.
6. Charles Schwab (2016) – Why This Road #Own Your Tomorrow – challenging yourself to ensure you are on the right path.
Recognition:
- Titled ‘Honorable’ and commissioned a Kentucky Colonel, by the Commonwealth of Kentucky’s Governor, Andy Breshear (2025)
- Honor and Citation by the New York State Assembly (2021)
- Fearless Girl award by New York Congresswoman Maloney (2019)
- Scientific and Exploration Society’s Explorer of the Year (2018)
Appointments:
- Dame of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta (current)
  
  Hon Ambassador for the Polish Knights of Malta in Kraków
- Hon Ambassador for iMediSync, a wireless MRI and tPBM device (current)
- Hon Ambassador representing the Sherpa appointed by US Nepal Climbers Association in USA (2017 – 2026)
- Goodwill Ambassador for Pakistan (2017 – 2022)
Affiliations
- Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society (current)
- Hon Advisory Board member of the Scientific Exploration Society (SES).
- American Program Bureau for speaking engagements to corporates, academics, not-for-profit, and the public sector.
- MBA from Stern School of Business, New York University and 20+ years of executive experience in global financial services.
Registered speaker with the American Program Bureau to corporates, academics, not-for-profit, and the public sector.
Executive MBA from Stern School of Business, New York University and 20+ years of executive experience in global financial services.

Media

Vanessa describes the EEG headset from iMediSync (아이메디신) she used to measure brain and HRV before and after her spaceflight on NS-22. iMediSync takes one step further by identifying early stage degenerative diseases (Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, for example), as their headset also administers transcranial photobiomodulation (tPBM) – low levels of red or near-infrared (NIR) light to stimulate neural tissues.

Just back from Guam, Vanessa becomes the First Woman to Reach Earth’s Highest and Lowest Points. She tells SkyNews about it on June 19, 2020.

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About Vanessa O’Brien

Vanessa O’Brien is a British female mountaineer and an American female mountaineer (as a result of her dual nationality), explorer, aquanaut, astronaut, author, and public speaker.

Her story of overcoming adversity and transformation unfolds in her book, To The Greatest Heights: Facing Danger, Finding Humility and Climbing A Mountain of Truth, Simon and Schuster (2021), described by many readers as one the most honest and riveting adventure autobiographies ever written.

Vanessa has an incredible six Guinness World Records: Only, First, Fastest, Deepest, Farthest and Oldest. Vanessa is the only woman to reach extremes on land, sea, and air (the Explorers' Extreme Trifecta) following her mission on Blue Origin's NS-22 to 107km. Vanessa was the first woman to reach earth’s highest and lowest points, (Mt. Everest 8,848m) and (Challenger Deep 10,925m), with the latter being deeper than Mt. Everest is tall. She is the fastest woman to climb the Seven Summits in 295 days, and the first person to reach nearest to and farthest from the earth's core (Challenger Deep and the summit of Chimborazo.)

Vanessa is the first woman to complete the Four Poles Challenge, going the farthest north * south * east * west from the top of Everest to the bottom of Challenger Deep to skiing the last degree to the geographic North and South Poles. She holds the record for the oldest woman to summit K2, the second tallest peak, at 52 years old.

Vanessa became the first American or British woman to successfully summit K2, receiving Explorer of the Year by the Scientific Exploration Society (SES) in 2018. She is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and an Honorary Advisory Board member of the SES.

Vanessa summitted the highest peak on every continent, receiving a Guinness World Record for the fastest time a woman first achieved this goal (295 days.) Vanessa has skied the last 111 km to the north and south poles completing the Explorers Grand Slam in 11 months, the first woman to do so in under a year, and the 8th woman in the world. Vanessa ran the Boston Marathon in 2017, helping to raise money for the American Red Cross, has been shot testing bulletproof vests with a .38 long revolver at point blank range, and rode 200 mph with Mario Andretti at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

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