TO THE GREATEST HEIGHTS Facing Danger, Finding Humility, and Climbing a Mountain of Truth

While Vanessa O'Brien didn't take up serious mountain climbing until her 40s, she roared into the record books as the first woman to complete the Explorers' Grand Slam--climbing the tallest peak on every continent and skiing to the North and South Poles--in less than a year. In a multilayered performance, narrator Vivienne Leheny encapsulates O'Brien's drive, guts, spirit, and wicked sense of humor. Leheny's delivery captures the fear of avalanches, the misery of high-altitude ailments, the frustration of failure, the exhilaration of reaching the top of Everest, and loads of self-deprecatory moments. A particular high point is Leheny's rhythmic chanting of "99 bottles of beer on the wall" as O'Brien trudges to the peak of Everest in the dark after losing her headlamp. A.B. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine [Published: JULY 2021]