A banker who turned her back on business to climb Everest and says being able to climb mountains is ample compensation for never having children.

Vanessa O'Brien, 50, who worked in banking for 20 years before quitting during the recession, says she can now spend thousands on expeditions because she doesn't have 'expensive children.'

And her British husband is happy to cut back on his own lifestyle to help fund her expeditions, which can cost up to £50,000.

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Vanessa O'Brien turned her back on banking to climb Everest and is now a professional mountaineer

Vanessa, pictured during her expedition up K2, in Pakistan, decided not to try alternative methods after not conceiving naturally with husband Jonathan O'Brien

But she told MailOnline: 'I can do it because I didn't have expensive children.'

The former Bank of America employee met her husband of 13 years, Jonathan O'Brien, 48, while living in London.

The couple tried to have a family but after she did not conceive naturally, they decided against alternative methods like IVF.

Now, she has climbed the Seven Summits, the seven highest mountains in seven continents, as well as trekking through Antarctica and the Arctic to both Poles.

Vanessa grew up in Michigan, US, and moved to London in 1999.

Working in consumer accounts for many large bank firms like Bank of America, Morgan Stanley and Barclays Bank, it was in 2010 when the recession hit, she had a change of heart.

Jonathan is concerned about Vanessa attempting to climb K2, which has killed 80 climbers but supports her and trusts in her climbing capabilities

Vanessa, pictured during her climb of Manaslu the eight highest mountain in the world, has a Guiness World Record for being the fastest woman to climb the Seven Summits in 2013

She said: 'That was the main catalyst and turning point. It was such dark times, not that it's changed completely.

'I walked down the high street and shops were boarding up and closing, people were clearing out their offices. I was looking to climb up and out of it.

'My grandparents went through the Great Depression, this wasn't something that was meant to happen to us.'

It was when a friend suggested that she take on such a huge challenge as a joke that she decided to take up mountaineering.

Vanessa trains by running up and down underground station steps as it mimics the altitude

Although she was not able to climb the K2 this year because of unsafe conditions, Vanessa, pictured during the climb, will be attempting again next year

She said: 'It was a case of my friend saying "Why don't you climb Everest?" in jest, and me saying "Sure and you fly to the moon and we'll meet back here".

'We had a little laugh.'

At the time Vanessa had no idea how to climb, but she wanted a new project and realised Everest wasn't such a flight of fancy.

She said: 'I was thinking, "What takes two or years years, which would measure success or failure and challenge me".'

It made her realise she should take the challenge seriously, so she began fitting in training whenever she could when she was back in London and would run and up down the stairs at Hampstead Heath underground station because with over 300 steps it was strenuous enough to mimic the mountain conditions.

She said: 'I took two years to train for it, I took it very seriously. People would often ask "Are you training for a mountain?"

'Stairmasters in gyms just aren't the same, they help you with gravity so it's kind of fake.'

A friend suggested she climb Everest as a joke when she quit her job during the recession in 2010

Vanessa decided to climb Everest after a friend joked she climb the mountain

In those two years she was also saving for the sheer cost of climbing Everest, which can be around £50,000, including flights.

Vanessa and her husband had to cut back by not taking holidays and using his wages as a chartered accountant and her bonuses from the banks.

She said she's had to give up luxuries like holidays and new clothes to be able to afford her expeditions.

Cheaper climbs such as Kilimanjaro, in Africa, cost around £3,000.

Vanessa said: 'I've sacrificed the luxuries like having new stuff or going on a fabulous holiday or buy a new sofa.

'Luckily, my husband's fine as long as he's got a laptop he doesn't really care.

'He's just a guy, he's not high maintenance.'

In 2011, she climbed Shisha Pangma and Cho Oyo, two 8,000-ft peaks in the Himalayas, in preparation and then returned to Everest.

But while Vanessa doesn't deny how gruelling this pastime is, she believes women are often better climbers because of the mental strength needed.

She said: 'I've found that although you need to train hard, all that physical work, you need the mental determination to succeed.

'Women are good at that, they run households and go through labour.'

Vanessa, pictured climbing Mount Everest in 2012, said she goes without luxuries for her mountaineering

She turned her back on banking after the 'dark times' of the recession in 2010 when shops were being boarded up and many people lost their jobs, pictured climbing the Canadian Rockies

Yet on her Everest climb, there was only one other woman with her in a team of 10.

Out of those, only six made it, with Vanessa and the other woman also in the group that succeeded.

In March 2013, she became a Guinness World Record Holder as the fastest female to climb the Seven Summits.

The summits can vary but are a combination of nine, Everest, in Nepal, Aconcagua, in Argentina, Denali, in Alaska, Kilimangiro, in Africa, Elbrus, in Russia, Vinson, in Antarctica, Carstensz Pyramid, in New Guinea, Mont Blanc, in France, Mount Kosciuszko, in Australia.

She's also the quickest woman to complete the Explorers Grand Slam of reaching the last degree of both the North and South Poles.

She said freezing temperatures don't bother her as it's always cold in her native state of Michigan.

Vanessa, who moved to Boston, US, in 2012, is currently embarking on the challenge of climbing K2, in Pakistan, but was thwarted in July when conditions prevented her from climbing and could only reach base camp three.

She didn't plan to climb the world's second-highest mountain and her husband had swayed her from it several times.

It has a deadly reputation, and one in four people who climb it don't survive the experience. There are other dangers too and 11 climbers were killed at the base camp of Pakistan's Nanga Parbat just two years ago when a group of men, who called themselves members of the Taliban, opened fire.

Vanessa, pictured reaching the summit of Mont Blanc, does't want others to follow her example as mountaineering is too risky for many and can end in fatality

Pictured climbing in Chamonix, France, Vanessa will attempt to climb the K2 in Pakistan again next year

The deaths have been attributed to avalanches, storms, altitude sickness and falls from the mountain face.

With 302 summits and 80 fatalities, about one person dies on the mountain for every four who summit.

Last year, a climbing friend asked Vanessa to join him on an expedition up the K2 and she declined.

But after seeing his pictures of the climb through social media, she added it to her to-do list.

She will now have to wait until next summer to climb the summit which is good news for her husband Jonathan who is not keen on her attempting the K2 but Vanessa says he's confident in her.

She said: 'He wasn't thrilled about it but he supports me and his aware of the statistics and he's confident in my capabilities.'

She admits her career is risky and although she regularly visits schools and does public speaking through her website VOB Online to teach the merits of mountaineering, she doesn't want to encourage young people to take it to her level.

She said: 'It teaches confidence and geography but by no means do I want them to get involved in this outside of hiking and exploring.