Lydia Bradey: Going Up is Easy
The first woman to ascend
Everest without oxygen
with Laurence
Fearnley
Penguin Books- $38.00
Lydia Bradey was the first woman to have
climbed Everest without oxygen – and remains the only New Zealander to have
done so.
Having made three Everest ascents, Lydia is one of New Zealand’s
most high-achieving and experienced high-altitude mountaineers, and her
personal journey is just as fascinating – a non-sporting only child, raised by
a single mother, with an enduring ambition to climb 8000-metre peaks.
For the first time in Going
Up is Easy, Lydia tells of her historic Everest ascent, where she climbed
oxygen-free to the summit at the age of 27. She also recounts her many
hair-raising expeditions through Alaska, Bhutan, Nepal, Pakistan, India, China,
Europe and New Zealand.
The 1988 Everest ascent
was marred by controversy – which Lydia addresses. Lydia made the final ascent
alone, left on the mountain by her team members with no one else alongside her
to share or witness her remarkable feat. Although her claim to the top was later
formally acknowledged, as a young woman, she had to face detractors who did not
believe her side of the story.
Going Up is Easy celebrates a life lived on the edge – a
woman competing at the highest level in a male-dominated culture, willing to
make sacrifices for ultimate success and personal fulfilment. Through her
stories, we encounter a woman propelled by curiosity and passion to become one
of the greatest female high-altitude adventurers of all time.
Co-written with acclaimed novelist Laurence Fearnley, a
long-time friend of Bradey, and stunningly illustrated throughout, Going Up
is Easy is the inspiring, confronting and powerful story of how one woman
took on the mountaineering world and won.
About the authors:
Lydia Bradey is one of Australasia’s foremost high-altitude
mountaineers. Beginning her alpine career in the 1970s, she made her first
ascent of Aoraki/Mount Cook while still a teenager. Following her dream to
become a climber, she travelled to Alaska, Nepal, Bhutan and Pakistan, where, in
1987, she became the first Australasian woman to climb an 8000-metre peak,
Gasherbrum 2. In 1988, she made a historic ascent of Mount Everest, becoming
the first woman to reach the summit without supplementary oxygen. Employed as a
professional mountain guide, she has made two further ascents of Everest as
well as climbed and guided extensively throughout Nepal, Pakistan, Antarctica,
South America, Africa and Europe. She lives at Lake Hawea, Otago, with her
partner – and fellow mountain guide – Dean Staples.
Laurence Fearnley is an
award-winning novelist and non-fiction writer. Her works include The Hut
Builder, Edwin and Matilda, Room and her latest, Reach,
which was published at the end of 2014. In 2013, Fearnley published a work of
non-fiction, 45 South: A Journey across Southern New Zealand, with
photographer Arno Gasteiger, and in 2012 researched New Zealand mountaineering
writing for a PhD in Creative Writing from Victoria University of Wellington.
Laurence lives in Dunedin with her husband, son and a couple of dogs. She has
been friends with Lydia since the 1980s, when they shared a house in
Christchurch.
Authors - photo right.
Lydia Bradey - credit Dean Staples
Link to Kathryn Ryan interview with Lydia Bradey on Radio NZ National, 5 June, 2015
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