To the Greatest Heights

''What a wonderful, honest, refreshing book, full of free-spirited adventure, humour and profound thoughts to provide inspiration to anyone who simply dreams of getting out and doing their own thing'' SIR CHRIS BONINGTON

''Ernest Shackleton listed those qualities an explorer should possess over a century ago: optimism, patience, idealism with imagination, and courage. Vanessa''s qualities are truly akin to these'' ALEXANDRA SHACKLETON

When Vanessa O''Brien was made redundant in 2008 as part of the recession, she moved to Hong Kong with her husband for his career and resigned herself to being ''just the wife''. There she was, aged 46, bored, uninspired, unemployed. Was this going to be how she was going to live the rest of her life?

One night in the infamous Kee Club, over shots of tequila, a friend suggested O''Brien climb Everest, and that was the start of an epic journey she never looked back from as she climbed Everest, K2 and many other mountai