Ain't no mountain high enough LYDIA'S lofty challenge

LYDIA BRADEY (58) WAS THE FIRST WOMAN AND FIRST KIWI TO SUMMIT MT EVEREST WITHOUT SUPPLEMENTARY OXYGEN

- Julie Jacobson

The first time I was exposed to the great outdoors was when my mother sent me off to do a mountain craft course in Arthur’s Pass. Thinking about it now, there must have been some kind of spiritual association about being in nature, though at 14, I didn’t fully understand it. I just knew I wanted to go back.

When I left school at the end of sixth form, I knew I wanted to go to university, but angsted over what to study.

I was walking along one day – by this stage, I’d climbed Mt Aspiring and Aoraki/Mt Cook – when this (metaphorical) hand tapped me on the shoulder and said, ‘Go climbing.’

So I did – on an expedition to Alaska to try the second ascent of a really hard route on Denali, the highest mountain in North America. I thought I was quite a good climber. Turns out I wasn’t very good at all.

I spent two years in America climbing big walls, climbs that can take a week, where you sleep on hammocks hanging alongside the rock. I met a lot of cool people and I learned a lot of new skills. I also did a lot of growing up.

I was 24 the first time I went to the Himalayas, to attempt a summit on Cho Oyu. I realized then that I did all right at altitude, and returned for six more high-altitude expeditions in three years, finishing with Everest.