Mountaineer Hilaree O'Neill to Appear at The Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza

Extreme mountain skier and climber Hilaree O'Neill recounts tough decisions she had to make as leader of an expedition to summit Hkakabo Razi in Burma. Friday, March 9 at 8:00 pm in the Fred Kavli Theatre.

In the fall of 2014, a five-person team from National Geographic set out on an ambitious trek to summit an obscure Burmese peak, Hkakabo Razi, and determine once and for all if it is Southeast Asia's highest point. What unfolded was a harrowing expedition that pushed the group to the brink mentally and physically and carved them down to nothing. Led by O'Neill, the team encountered one pitfall after another: interminable overland train rides, sketchy motorcycle trips in the rain, hellish jungle slogs, dwindling food supplies, logistical failures, howling winds, false summits, hypothermia, perilous gendarmes and - perhaps the most threatening of all - personality clashes that threatened to unravel the expedition. O'Neill will share stories from the expedition, accompanied by photographer Cory Richard's dramatic stills and clips from Renan Ozturk's searing documentary Down to Nothing.

O'Neill started skiing at age 3 at Steven's Pass in the Cascade Mountains of Washington state. She took a leap of faith shortly after graduating from Colorado College and moved to Chamonix, France. From there, the place for O'Neill was anywhere she could cut turns on mountain slopes: volcanoes in the Kamchatka Peninsula of Russia, in Mongolia, India, Lebanon, and first descents of the tight couloirs of Baffin Island in the Canadian Arctic. Her mountain adventures led Outside Magazine to name O'Neill one of the most adventurous women in the world of sports.

In 2012, surrounded by team members she would mentor, and alpinists who would mentor her, she climbed both Everest and its neighbor Lhotse making her the first woman to climb consecutive 8000m peaks in a single day.

Most recently, O'Neill attempted another Himalayan giant, Makalu which was named by Outside Magazine as one of the "Most Badass Adventures of 2015".

Single tickets are priced at $46 and $36 with group discounts available. Tickets are available from Ticketmaster at 800-745-3000, online at www.ticketmaster.com, or through the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza Box Office, located at 2100 Thousand Oaks Boulevard. For more information call 805-449-ARTS (2787) or visit www.civicartsplaza.com.

To post a comment, you must register and login.