To The Greatest Heights

To The Greatest Heights

Facing Danger, Finding Humility, and Climbing a Mountain of Truth

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.

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In the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, Vanessa O’Brien’s life was suddenly turned upside down. After years of climbing the corporate ladder to great success, her career went into a tailspin, and she herself searching for a new purpose. She settled on an unlikely goal: climbing Mount Everest.

Vanessa not only held her own in the intensely competitive world of mountaineering, but she thrived, leading to her to the ultimate mountaineering challenge: K2, the “Savage Mountain,” which kills one out of every four climbers who summit. Yet Vanessa was determined to beat the odds.

Told with heart and humor, Vanessa’s journey from the suburbs to Everest’s Death Zone to the summit of K2 is a story of resilience, higher purpose, and the courage to overcome any obstacle.

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About Vanessa O’Brien

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

Vanessa is the First Woman to Reach Earth’s Highest and Lowest Points, a Guinness World Record she received after summiting Mt. Everest (8,848m) in 2012 and diving in a submersible to the eastern pool of Challenger Deep (10,925m) in 2020.

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

Vanessa climbed the highest peak on every continent, receiving a Guinness World Record setting a record for the fastest time a woman first achieved this goal (295 days). Vanessa has skied the last 111 km to the South and North Poles completing the Explorers Grand Slam in 11 months, becoming 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 clothing at point blank range by Miguel Caballero with a .38 long revolver, and also reached 200 mph riding with Mario Andretti at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 2018.