WEDNESDAY, APRIL 3; 2013 'The obvious question is why' Boston woman --------, tackling peaks at a record pace By James H. Burnett III GLOBE STAFF nApril9, Vanessa O'Brien will set off for one ofthe most inhospitable land­ scapes on the plan­ 0et, the North Pole. Frigid, shift­ ing ice floes will make for bru­ tal conditions. Temperatures may plunge to minus 30 to mi­ nus 45 degrees, cold enough to freeze exposed skin in under a minute. O'Brien, 48, of Boston, won't have much time to get there. She needs to make it to the pole this month in order to set a new world record for climb­ ing the highest peaks on an seven continents, and reaching the South and North poles, faster than any woman ever ICEAXE EXPEDITIONS has. She intends to complete that feat, known as the Explor­ THE TRIUMPHS ers' Grand Slam, in about 11 1. Everest, Nepal months. 2. McKinley, USA "The obvious question is 3. Elbrus, Russia why;' O'Brien said in a recent 4. Carstensz, phone call from a camp on Indonesia Mount Kilimanjaro, a little 5. Vinson Massif, more than halfway up the Antarctica 19,341-foot peak, the highest 6. South Pole in Africa. 1. Aconcagua, "I like the challenge. I need Argentina the challenge, really;' she said. 8. Kilimanjaro, "And in a way, this - mountain Tanzania SUMMITS, Page AlO + AlO The Region THE B 0 s T I Boston woman tackling ~SUMMITS who overcame challenges both Krakauer's bestseller "Into r Continued from Page AI professional and physical, in­ Thin Air:• climbing - has allowed me to cluding the loss of an arm. O'Brien made her first sue- 1 ,escape and keep climbing. the After graduating from New cessful major climb in 2005 - record, if I get it, will be great. York University Stem School of just months after she decided But this is about the challenge:' Business, O'Brien worked her to start climbing - ascending O'Brien, a former banker, way up in the financial services Kilimanjaro. But she said the lives on Marlborough Street industry as an executive at best climbing ''lesson" she's ev- near the Public Garden, but in Bank of America, Barclays, and er learned came almost three recent months she's usually Morgan Stanley, in the United years later, the first time she at­ found in more remote loca­ States and in the United King­ tempted Everest. tions. Besides Kilimanjaro, she dom. "I failed that first time," has since May 2012 scaled But when the global econo­ O'Brien said. "I didn't make it Everest (Nepal), Elbrus (Rus­ my began to show signs of frac­ to the summit, only to base sia), Aconcagua (Argentina), ture, O'Brien said, she became camp. It was a humbling expe­ Carstensz (Indonesia), Mount disenchanted. "So many people rience. But if it wasn't already McKinley (United States), and ' were suffering as a result of the clear to me, and it was, that Vinson Massif (Antarctica), financial markets falling apart. failure drove home the fact that joining a list of about 53 other ... So I quit;' she said. "I left the it is a deadly serious sport. It women who have done so. industry:' · isn't a game in any way:' (O'Brien also climbed Kosciusz­ Leaving her job didn't mean When she reached the sum­ ko, at 7,310 feet the tallest that her ambition disappeared. mit of Everest -the world's mountain in Australia, which is After a few months of soul highest peak at 29,039 feet - sometimes included on Seven searching, she had an epipha­ last May, it was with both ela­ Summits lists with or in lieu of ny: "I should really climb:' tion and sadness, as Duane Nel­ Carstensz.) In December, she Almost immediately, son, a Portland, Ore.-based ex­ trudged to the South Pole after O'Brien said, she became keen­ ecutive with Intel Corp. and being dropped off by ski plane ly aware of the potential for member of her party, lost all the 60 nautical miles away. some resentment among those toes on his right foot to frost­ The North Pole trek will in the elite climbing world. bite, and several other mem­ ' pose very different challenges. O'Brien wasn't an experienced bers of her party developed alti­ O'Brien and her team- expedi­ climber, but she had the means tude sickness and had to turn tion leader Doug Stoup of Ice - that is, the money- to get back early in the climb. Axe Expeditions, and Santa very serious about the pursuit. Nelson, a marathon runner Monica-based Karl Pettijohn, "I didn't have to struggle fi­ and experienced climber, said one of her climbing partners nancially to put climbs togeth­ O'Brien made it to the top be­ from Everest - will rendezvous er," she recalled. "And people cause she was simply better at the Longyearbyen settlement can sometimes assume things prepared. in Svalbard, Norway. By ski about you, based on your level "She was consistently plane, they will head to 89 de­ of success." among the first group to reach grees North, where they will be­ Indeed, climbing and trek­ every one of the climbing objec­ gin the frigid arid wet journey. king can be very expensive. tives," Nelson said in a recent "There may be times we will O'Brien's South Pole trek cost telephone interview from his have to put on dry suits and about $45,000. The North Pole home in Oregon. "She never got jump in the water to pull our will cost about the same. Her sick like the rest of us .... She sleds across to get to another climb up Everest cost about clearly trained to the appropri­ piece of ice if we cannot get $70,000, including travel, ate level per best on the planet around," O'Brien said. "Fur­ equipment, guides' salaries and practices:' thermore, we may find our­ Sherpa fees. Seattle-based Mike Hamill, a selves drifting off course at Of course, O'Brien had no star tlimbing guide, photogra­ night while we are sleeping, desire to become a lightning pher, and author, who has which means we may need to rod like Sandy Hill (formerly scaled all seven summits at make up mileage during the Pittman), a mountaineer, least four times and some as day .. to reach our goal:' wealthy socialite, and the sec­ many as 20, reiterated Nelson's As a teenager growing up ond American woman ever to praise for O'Brien's prepara­ near Detroit, O'Brien knew she climb the Seven Summits. Pitt­ tion. wanted to climb. But instead of man was part of a 1996 disaster "It's about conditioning, mountains, she hoped to climb in which eight climbers died on physical and mental, and about the corporate ladder - in­ Everest after getting caught in a good judgment," Hamill said. spired, friends say, by her very freak storm. The ill-fated expe­ "What struck me about Vanes­ determined mother, a nurse dition was chronicled in Jon sa is that there are people who 0 N G L 0 BE WEDNESDAY, APRIL 3, 2013 + peaks at a record pace Vanessa a few years ago and she told me what she was plan­ ning, to climb the summits and to do it in such a short period of time, I didn't know if she had it in her," Oteri said. "But the thing about Vanessa is she doesn't quit. I know that's a cli­ che. But I have clients who tell me to push them, push them, push them. And then after a short while they tell me, 'Stop! I can't do it.' Not her. She's defi­ ant and just asks for more.'' Their workout routines take about 30 hours per week, in­ cluding Pilates, yoga, and weight lifting in the gym. Sev­ eral more hours are spent on Revere Beach with O'Brien dragging a 50-pound tractor tire through the sand to build endurance and lung capacity. Jonathan O'Brien, her Brit­ ish-born husband, said you couldn't pay him to climb a mountain, unless it was a short distance to a ski lift. But lie's not surprised by his wife's de­ termination. The couple met when the bank he worked for purchased the bank she worked for in London, and his team was brought in to manage the merg­ er. They moved to Boston in 2011. The couple has no chil­ dren. "Vanessa and I first metal­ most 18 years ago in London," Jonathan O'Brien said. "And since I've known her she has DINA RUDICK/GLOBE STAFF had this very fierce focus .... So 'But if it wasn't already clear to me, and it is no surprise at all that she's been able to succeed in climb­ it was, that failure drove home the fact ing.'' that it is a deadly serious sport. It isn't a Returning to Boston recent­ ' ly from her Kilimanjaro climb, game In. any way. O'Brien - ,tired and wind­ burned - could not stop smil­ VANESSA O'BRIEN, shown preparing by dragging a tractor tire ing. on Revere Beach to build endurance and lung capacity "One way or another we all try to climb, literally or figura­ tively," she said. "I have every prepare enough to get by, to Brett "The Hammer" Oteri, reason to smile. I've been lucky make it. And then there are O'Brien's trainer at Equinox enough to do it more than one people who prepare like profes­ gym in Boston's Financial Dis­ way.'' sionals, like they could lead the trict, gives a satisfied chuckle way if they had to.