To the Greatest Heights

August 10, 2020
British American mountaineer O’Brien pens a thrilling debut memoir about her mountain-climbing adventures and what they’ve taught her about life. After an alcohol-filled outing soon after losing her high-level corporate job after the 2008 financial crisis, O’Brien decides she’s going to climb Mt. Everest. What started as a dare ended up as an obsession, leading to O’Brien’s quest to complete the “Seven Summits” challenge—scaling the tallest mountain on each continent. She begins with Mt. Everest, and reaches the summit on May 19, 2012. O’Brien makes readers feel as if they’re on the mountain with her through her vivid descriptions (“Shrapnel from shattering ice and rock whistled through the clean air”) and detail (those who are squeamish may skim over some of the more graphic descriptions of body parts she encounters from failed climbers in the past remaining on the mountain). “I summited Mount Kilimanjaro via the Umbwe route at 7:07 AM on March 10, 2013,” she writes, and with that set a Guinness world record for completing the seven summits faster than any woman had before. Ultimately, O’Brien writes, “Nostalgia is a waste of oxygen, and regret has a nasty tendency to avalanche. What matters is the mountain that stands before you.” Readers—especially mountaineering types—will devour O’Brien’s sensational, electrifying tale.

November 1, 2020
It would seem that the type-A personality that makes a successful business executive is also an asset for a world class climber. O'Brien survived a horrific childhood to become a successful MBA working in global finance. When her job is lost in a global downturn, her search for the next challenge brings her to climbing. Not the small stuff. She sets her sights on the Seven Summits, the highest peak on each continent, and the Explorer's Grand Slam, both of which she completes in record time. Her mental and physical stamina and intelligence as well as leadership skills and a supportive husband serve her well, as does her seemingly bottomless bank account. Climbing is not for the faint of heart nor the economically challenged. The large circle of friends she makes in the climbing community adds to her enjoyment and helps define who she is. Readers will enjoy vicariously experiencing O'Brien's thrills and fears, and she does a fine job of sharing her joys and failures. This should be a high-point for armchair adventurers.

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Starred review from February 1, 2021
A record-setting mountaineer chronicles her ascents, near misses, and challenges, not all on mountains. In her debut, O'Brien deftly spins the story of how she lost her high-powered corporate job and decided to climb Mount Everest. Despite hair-raising obstacles and frozen body parts littering the trail, she succeeded and gradually moved into the highest ranks of mountaineering. Readers will be thrilled by her accounts of climbing the Seven Summits, the highest mountains on each continent, achieving the Explorers' Grand Slam after skiing to both the North and South poles. She was the first British and American woman (dual citizenship) to conquer K2, arguably the most dangerous mountain in the world, and in 2013, she became the first woman to complete the Grand Slam in less than one year. Throughout the book, the author provides well-fleshed characterizations of guides, fellow travelers (some of whom become dear friends, some total jerks), and one fine fellow she calls Spousey. O'Brien teaches us about the tedium involved in the process of acclimatizing to high altitudes, spending months in base camps hiking up and down, and she parcels out the painful details of her childhood at the hands of careless parents, crediting those experiences with bolstering her independence and inner strength. This backstory contains a black hole that she avoids fully explaining for much of the narrative, adding tension to the procession of summits, stories that become somewhat repetitive by the end of the book. Nonetheless, O'Brien pours her unflagging energy and hard-won life wisdom into every aspect of her book--even the epigraphs for each chapter are excellent--and her prose is commendably free of clich�s and full of wit. All of these elements combine to make a vicariously engaging addition to the literature on mountaineering as well as a beacon of inspiration in these dark times. O'Brien's warm, witty voice will bring a wide audience to her world-class adventures.

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