LYDIA’S LOFTY TASK
Ain’t no mountain high enough
Ain’t no mountain high enough!
LYDIA BRADEY (58) WAS THE FIRST WOMAN AND FIRST KIWI TO SUMMIT MT EVEREST WITHOUT SUPPLEMENTARY OXYGEN
The first time I was exposed to the great outdoors was when my mother sent me off to do a mountain craft course in Arthur’s Pass. Thinking about it now, there must have been some kind of spiritual association about being in nature, though at 14, I didn’t fully understand it. I just knew I wanted to go back.
When I left school at the end of sixth form, I knew I wanted to go to university, but angsted over what to study.
I was walking along one day – by this stage I’d climbed Mt Aspiring and Aoraki/Mt
Cook – when this (metaphorical) hand tapped me on the shoulder and said, ‘Go climbing.’
So I did – on an expedition to Alaska to try the second ascent of a really hard route on Denali, the highest mountain in North America. I thought I was quite a good climber. Turns out I wasn’t very good at all.
I spent two years in America climbing big walls, climbs that can take a week, where you sleep on hammocks hanging alongside the rock. I met a lot of cool people and I learned a lot of new skills. I also did a lot of growing up.
I was 24 the first time I went to the Himalayas, to attempt a summit on Cho Oyu. I realised then that I did all right at altitude, and returned for six more high-altitude expeditions in three years, finishing with Everest.
Summiting a mountain is a pinnacle for many, but it’s the way I climbed Everest – alone and without oxygen – that made it a huge pinnacle for me. I’d like to think we all have a variety of pinnacles.
For example, I’m happy in my relationship – it’s really solid – and in a way that’s a pinnacle.
When you are on Everest you know how cool it is at the time, but you are also doing the things you need to do to stay alive and be safe. On my first ascent there was no fixed rope, no oxygen, so it was,
‘Yay, I’ve climbed it,’ but it was also like, ‘Thank God, now I can turn around and go back down!’
Post-Everest was the beginning of a very dark period. Fifty percent of my expedition, including two of the best friends I’d ever made in the mountains (two Slovaks) later died, and my ascent was vilified by some people.
There was definitely a lot of self-analysis after that, some regathering, if you like. Still, overall I’m pretty stoked about it, and I’m pretty proud of now being a guide on
Everest as well.
Last year I was on the summit the day a photo of a queue of people waiting to summit on the Nepal side went viral. But I was on the Tibet-China side and we were the only climbers on that side that day!
It was the same in 2018, when I was guiding from Nepal – we were on the summit of Everest for 40 minutes watching the sun rise on the world before anyone else turned up. Absolutely amazing.
Over-tourism? It’s not the numbers that are the problem. It’s about how we treat Everest – people leaving tents and rubbish, for example.
Antarctica is an amazing place too. I’ve twice guided on Vinson (Antarctica’s highest mountain) and my partner Dean and I have made a couple of first ascents on the Antarctic Peninsula. We watched whales and ski-toured and had the best time! I haven’t been to the Arctic, but if anyone wants to go, let me know!
I’m not naturally great at sport. In fact, I’ve described myself as a clunky and clumsy kid who was traumatised by the thought of school sports days. It took me a long time to get my international mountain and ski guide qualifications and I am so proud of it because for me it’s such a big achievement.
I’m also a physiotherapist, so in between mountain or ski guiding here or overseas, I work in a rest home and hospital in Alexandra.
About four years ago I changed my middle name to Pounamu. I had a very Anglo-Saxon middle name. Although I’m a Kiwi, it didn’t tie me to Aotearoa/New Zealand, so about four years ago I changed it to the name I would have given my daughter if I’d had children.
I’ve broken things and worn my body out – it’s like going rusty – and I had a hip replacement in 2015. I keep fit by hill walking and mountain biking. All of my main injuries have been from skiing or biking, not from climbing.
I’ve nearly died a few times. In reality most people have had close calls – it’s life! People sometimes forget about the time that car came around the corner and nearly sideswiped them.
I’ll be in the mountains and walking the hills, be they big or small, for as long as I possibly can. Till the day I die, I hope.”