To the Greatest Heights
Facing Danger, Finding Humility, and Climbing a Mountain of Truth
Failed to add items
Sorry, we are unable to add the item because your shopping cart is already at capacity.
Add to basket failed.
Please try again later
Add to Wish List failed.
Please try again later
Remove from Wish List failed.
Please try again later
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Select 1 audiobook a month from our entire collection.
Listen to your selected audiobooks as long as you're a member.
Get unlimited access to bingeable podcasts.
Auto-renews at $8.99/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.
To the Greatest Heights
Narrated by:
Vivienne Leheny
Buy Now for $28.95
-
Narrated by:
-
Vivienne Leheny
About this listen
Long before she became the first American woman to summit K2 and the first British woman to return from its summit alive, Vanessa O’Brien was a feisty suburban Detroit teenager forced to reinvent her world in the wake of a devastating loss that destroyed her family.
Making her own way in the world, Vanessa strove to reach her lofty ambitions. Soon, armed with an MBA and a wry sense of humor, she climbed the corporate ladder to great success, but after the 2009 economic meltdown, her career went into a tailspin. She searched for a new purpose and settled on an unlikely goal: climbing Mount Everest. When her first attempt ended in disaster, she trudged home, humbled but wiser. Two years later, she made it to the top of the world. And then she kept going.
Grounded by a cadre of wise-cracking friends and an inimitable British spouse, Vanessa held her own in the intensely competitive world of mountaineering, summiting the highest peak on every continent, and skiing the last degree to the North and South Poles. She set new speed records for the Seven Summits, receiving a Guinness World Record and the Explorers Grand Slam, and finally made peace with her traumatic past. During her attempt on K2, she very nearly gave up. But on the “savage mountain,” which kills one out of every four climbers who summit, Vanessa evolved from an adventurer out to challenge herself to an explorer with a high-altitude perspective on a changing world—and a new call to share her knowledge and passion across the globe.
Told with heart and humor, To the Greatest Heights is a “vicariously engaging addition to the literature on mountaineering as well as a beacon of inspiration” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review).
Critic Reviews
"In a multilayered performance, narrator Vivienne Leheny encapsulates O'Brien's drive, guts, spirit, and wicked sense of humor. Leheny's delivery captures the fear of avalanches, the misery of high-altitude ailments, the frustration of failure, the exhilaration of reaching the top of Everest, and loads of self-deprecatory moments. A particular high point is Leheny's rhythmic chanting of "99 bottles of beer on the wall" as O'Brien trudges to the peak of Everest in the dark after losing her headlamp."
No reviews yet
In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.