Lydia Bradey: Going Up is Easy - The first woman to ascend Everest without oxygen

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.

By constantly striving for her technical and physical best, Lydia was able to achieve personal fulfilment on the mountain; the personal goals acting as the driving force behind her commitment to the expeditions. Yet Lydia is candid about the highs and the lows of these emotionally taxing expeditions: the tough times (and her loss of confidence after her first Everest ascent), the grief of losing fellow climbing companions, the joy of the beauty of nature, gruelling and changeable mountain conditions – and making a summit.

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 author: 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.