Cathy O'Dowd was the first woman in the world to climb Mt. Everest from both the North and South sides. She is a lecturer, author and professional speaker.

Cathy O'Dowd was the first woman in the world to climb Mt. Everest from both the North and South sides. She is a lecturer, author and professional speaker.

Cathy embarked on her professional speaking career immediately after her participation in the famous, and controversial, 1st South African Everest Expedition of 1996.

The four years she spent on or around Everest, 1996 to 1999, was for her a degree 'in living'. The insights she discovered about herself, and about individuals and teams under intense stress in the face of overwhelming challenge, are ones she has been sharing with her corporate audiences ever since. Cathy has presented to companies in 15 countries on 4 continents.

Cathy was completing her Masters degree in Media Studies at Rhodes University, and working as a lecturer, when she saw an advert in a newspaper for a place on the 1st South African Everest Expedition. Having grown up in Johannesburg, South Africa, Cathy has climbed ever since leaving school. She has been to southern and central Africa, South America, Europe and the Himalaya.

She was one of 200 women who applied for the Everest place, and was the one finally selected. The team followed the route made famous by Edmund Hillary. Despite being the apprentice on the team, on 25 May 1996 Cathy reached the summit. It was, however, a tough introduction, as British teammate Bruce Herrod was killed on the descent.

In 1998 Cathy took on the challenge of the treacherous north side of Everest, where George Mallory had famously disappeared in 1924. Her attempt ended when she stopped to try and save a dying American woman.

In 1999 Cathy returned once more, and succeeded, becoming the first woman in the world to climb Everest from both north and south sides.

Cathy is also an author, and has written two books about her Everest experiences, Everest: Free To Decide, co-written with Ian Woodall, and the recently released Just for the love of it.

In 2000 Cathy became only the fourth woman in the world to climb Lhotse, the world's fourth highest mountain.

Cathy is currently living in Andorra, in the Pyrenees Mountains, while she pursues her speaking career, and explores the mountains of Europe. In between climbing and speaking, she is working on her next book, about an expedition to the Ruwenzori.

She is married to Ian Woodall, whom she met on her first Everest trip.