Vanessa Audi Rhys O'Brien is a British and American mountaineer,

sub-orbital spaceflight A sub-orbital spaceflight is a spaceflight in which the spacecraft reaches outer space, but its trajectory intersects the surface of the primary (astronomy), gravitating body from which it was launched. Hence, it will not complete one orbital ...

participant, explorer, and former business executive. On 12 June 2020, O'Brien became the first woman to reach Earth's highest and lowest points. She is a

Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers), often shortened to RGS, is a learned society and professional body for geography based in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1830 for the advancement of geographical scien ...

(RGS) and an Honorary Advisory Member of The Scientific Exploration Society (SES).

Early life

O'Brien received her Bachelor of Arts in Economics and Executive MBA in Finance from

New York University Stern School of Business The Leonard N. Stern School of Business (also NYU Stern, Stern School of Business, or simply Stern) is the business school of New York University, a private research university based in New York City. Founded as the School of Commerce, Accounts ...

. Vanessa O'Brien was named one of the Top 10 most famous NYU Stern MBA's in 2021. O'Brien worked as a Director of Finance and Business Development for

Morgan Stanley Morgan Stanley is an American multinational investment bank and financial services company headquartered at 1585 Broadway in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. With offices in 42 countries and more than 80,000 employees, the firm's clients in ...

Barclays Bank Barclays PLC (, occasionally ) is a British multinational universal bank, headquartered in London, England. Barclays operates as two divisions, Barclays UK and Barclays International, supported by a service company, Barclays Execution Services ...

, and the

Bank of America The Bank of America Corporation (Bank of America) (often abbreviated BofA or BoA) is an American multinational investment banking, investment bank and financial services holding company headquartered at the Bank of America Corporate Center in ...

Expeditions

O'Brien reached the summits of a number of notable mountains, including five of the world's fourteen 8,000-meter peaks (

Shishapangma Shishapangma, or Shishasbangma or Xixiabangma ( zh, s=希夏邦马, p=Xī xià bāng mǎ), is the 14th-highest mountain in the world, at above sea level. The lowest 8,000 metre peak, it is located entirely within Tibet. Name Geologist Toni H ...

Everest Mount Everest (), known locally as Sagarmatha in Nepal and Qomolangma in Tibet, is Earth's highest mountain above sea level. It lies in the Mahalangur Himal sub-range of the Himalayas and marks part of the China–Nepal border at its ...

Cho Oyu Cho Oyu ( Nepali: चोयु; ; ) is the sixth-highest mountain in the world at above sea level. Cho Oyu means " Turquoise Goddess" in Tibetan. The mountain is the westernmost major peak of the '' Khumbu'' sub-section of the Mahalangur Him ...

Manaslu Manaslu (; , also known as Kutang) is the List of highest mountains#List, eighth-highest mountain in the world at above sea level. It is in the Mansiri Himal, part of the Nepalese Himalayas, in west-central Nepal. Manaslu means "mountain of the ...

, and K2), including summiting two eight thousanders back-to-back 8 days apart (

and

). O'Brien decided to build on her passion for mountaineering and set herself the challenge of achieving the Explorers Grand Slam. The

Explorers Grand Slam The Explorer's Grand Slam is an adventurer goal to reach the North Pole and South Pole, as well as climb the Seven Summits ( Everest, Aconcagua, Denali, Kilimanjaro, Elbrus, Vinson, and Puncak Jaya or Kosciuszko). History The original ...

entails reaching the Seven Summits, the North and South Poles, as well as meeting the Three Pole Challenge. O'Brien joined Caladan Oceanic's Ring of Fire expedition to the Pacific Ocean to survey the bottom of the three pools that constitute

Challenger Deep The Challenger Deep is the List of submarine topographical features#List of oceanic trenches, deepest known point of the seabed of Earth, located in the western Pacific Ocean at the southern end of the Mariana Trench, in the ocean territory o ...

in partnership with

NOAA The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA ) is an American scientific and regulatory agency charged with forecasting weather, monitoring oceanic and atmospheric conditions, charting the seas, conducting deep-sea exploratio ...

. On 12 June 2020,

Victor Vescovo Victor Lance Vescovo (born February 10, 1966) is an American private equity investor, retired naval officer, sub-orbital spaceflight participant, and undersea explorer. He was a co-founder and managing partner of private equity company Insight ...

and O'Brien descended to the "Eastern Pool" of Challenger Deep spending three hours mapping the bottom, with the dive scanning approximately one mile of desolate bottom terrain, finding that the surface is not flat, as once was thought, but sloping, and by about , subject to verification. O'Brien flew aboard

Blue Origin Blue Origin Enterprises, L.P. is an American space technology company headquartered in Kent, Washington. The company operates the suborbital New Shepard rocket and the heavy-lift New Glenn rocket. In addition to producing engines for its own ...

NS-22, receiving FAA human spaceflight recognition, on 4 August 2022. For the sixth time in its 20-year history,

successfully launched humans on a

on the

New Shepard New Shepard is a Reusable launch vehicle, fully reusable Sub-orbital spaceflight, sub-orbital launch vehicle developed for space tourism by Blue Origin. The vehicle is named after Alan Shepard, who became the List of space travelers by nationali ...

22 mission. The five humans that flew with O'Brien included

Coby Cotton Dude Perfect (DP) is an American sports and comedy group and YouTube channel headquartered in Frisco, Texas. The group consists of Tyler "The Beard" Toney, "The Twins" Cory and Coby Cotton, Garrett "The Purple Hoser" Hilbert, and Cody "The Tall ...

Mário Ferreira Mário Nuno dos Santos Ferreira (born 1968) is a Portuguese businessman and entrepreneur.. He is the chairman of Media Capital, a major Portuguese media company with holdings including CNN Portugal. In March 2024, he acquired a 4.6% stake in Sava ...

, Clint Kelly III, Sara Sabry, and Steve Young, flying to a height of 107 km above Mean Sea Level (351,232 ft MSL). The crew endured 3,603 km/h (2,239 mph) during ascent and flew for a total of 10 minutes and 20 seconds. This was the first spaceflight of

involving two female crew members, and Vanessa O'Brien carried the UN Women's flag. She became the first woman to complete the Explorers' Extreme Trifecta – reaching extremes on land, sea, and air after she passed the Kármán line as part of

NS-22 spaceflight. After taking the

American Red Cross The American National Red Cross is a Nonprofit organization, nonprofit Humanitarianism, humanitarian organization that provides emergency assistance, disaster relief, and disaster preparedness education in the United States. Clara Barton founded ...

flag to the

North Pole The North Pole, also known as the Geographic North Pole or Terrestrial North Pole, is the point in the Northern Hemisphere where the Earth's rotation, Earth's axis of rotation meets its surface. It is called the True North Pole to distingu ...

in 2013, O'Brien completed the

Boston Marathon The Boston Marathon is an annual marathon race hosted by eight cities and towns in greater Boston in eastern Massachusetts, United States. It is traditionally held on Patriots' Day, the third Monday of April. Begun in 1897, the event was ins ...

in 2017 to help the

raise over $512,000 for charity.

World records

O'Brien set a Guinness World Record for summitting the highest peak on every continent in 295 days, the fastest time by a woman. She also skied the last 60 nautical miles or 111 km to the

South Pole The South Pole, also known as the Geographic South Pole or Terrestrial South Pole, is the point in the Southern Hemisphere where the Earth's rotation, Earth's axis of rotation meets its surface. It is called the True South Pole to distinguish ...

and

completing the

in 11 months, becoming the first woman to do so in under a calendar year and the 8th woman in the world to accomplish this. In July 2017, she became the first American woman to climb K2 and the first British woman to climb K2 and return safely, successfully leading a team of 12 members to the summit and back on her third attempt. Vanessa also received a record as the female with the highest age for summiting the savage mountain, K2, at 52 years old.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:OBrien, Vanessa Living people New York University Stern School of Business alumni American female mountain climbers British female climbers American summiters of Mount Everest British summiters of Mount Everest Summiters of the Seven Summits Summiters of K2 American explorers of Antarctica Explorers of the Arctic Female polar explorers American women explorers Fellows of the Royal Geographical Society American explorers of the Pacific British explorers of the Pacific 21st-century American explorers English explorers English polar explorers Aquanauts 21st-century British sportswomen 21st-century American sportswomen People who have flown in suborbital spaceflight New Shepard passengers Space tourists 21st-century British explorers 20th-century American sportswomen Year of birth missing (living people)

Early life

Expeditions

World records

See also

References

External links