Cathy O'Dowd

Cathy O'Dowd, born in 1968, is a South African rock climber, mountaineer, author and motivational speaker. She grew up in Johannesburg, began climbing at university and joined the First South African Everest Expedition after finishing a master's degree in media studies at Rhodes University. She reached the summit of Mount Everest from the south on 25 May 1996, two weeks after the blizzard that killed eight climbers on the same side of the mountain, and from the north on 29 May 1999, which made her the first woman to climb Everest from both sides. In 1998 an attempt on the north side ended when she and Ian Woodall stopped to help a collapsed American climber, Francys Arsentiev, and were forced to turn back. In 2000 she became the fourth woman to climb Lhotse. She co-wrote Everest: Free To Decide with Woodall, joined a dog-sled expedition through the Norwegian Arctic and lives in Andorra.