Lydia Bradey: Going Up Is Easy

Co-written with acclaimed novelist Laurence Fearnley, a long-time friend of Bradey, and stunningly illustrated throughout, Going Up is Easy is a life story by turns dramatic, tender, funny, frank and inspiring.
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.