Famed climber and photographer explores mental health in new memoir
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Images: Courtesy of Cory Richards
Cory Richards — a renowned climber and National Geographic photographer who has a home in Boulder — is on a mission to break the story of brokenness in his new memoir, "The Color of Everything: A Journey To Quiet The Chaos Within."
Zoom in: Richards has literally stood on top of the world, using Colorado's Rocky Mountains as his "training ground," he tells us.
- He's scaled Earth's tallest peaks and holds the title as the first and only American to summit the 26,362-foot Gasherbrum II in the Himalayas, where he was buried by an avalanche in 2011.
- The iconic self-portrait he took moments after his narrow escape appeared on the cover of "National Geographic Magazine," and the near-death experience was made into an award-winning documentary.
Yes, but: It wasn't until a mental health crisis in 2021 forced him to walk away from it all that he reached new heights.
The big picture: At age 43, Richards, who has battled bipolar disorder for decades, is using his extraordinary expeditions to candidly share how he confronted the trauma of his past, wrestled with addiction and his own mental health, and found the strength to rewrite his story.
What he's saying: "It's my story, but it's not about me," he said in an interview. "It's about allowing other people a space to feel validated in their own experiences."
The latest: Richards now lives in Los Angeles, but tells Axios Denver he still visits his Boulder home as often as he can.
The intrigue: He left Boulder to distance himself from the "activity-driven" community, he says.
- "When I realized I had built an entire identity around an activity and a career in that activity and then the career went away … I realized that I had never taken the time to figure out who I was without the action," he tells us.
- Now, he has a newfound appreciation for it. "The beauty of Boulder and Denver … is that it's a place where I can touch the thing that brought me into this life to begin with, which is nature."