SCALING GREAT HEIGHTS
Photographer Cory Richards opens up about staying upbeat amid Covid-19 and his next big adventure to Everest
hat the multi-faceted adventurer photographer Cory Richards craves is not for the faint-hearted.
At 39, the American’s accomplishments as a world-class photographer include not just capturing the most exotic people and places imaginable. Instead, as an avid climber, much of his work is the result of expeditions to the far corners of the Earth where he has had close calls but survived each time to tell his story viasome awe-inspiring photography.
For the November 2017 issue of National Geo
graphic, he travelled the world in search of the happiest people on Earth.
Richards has also summited Everest without the use of supplementaloxygen.
One of his most recent endeavours was taking part in the 2020 Rolls-Royce “Inspiring Greatness” series. The series presented inspirational stories from those who shape the world around us. It is an anthology highlighting relentless ambition and distinguished achievement of people around the world.
As the world grapples with the unprecedented impact of Covid-19, Richards, who is also an inspirational speaker, spoke with Life in a Zoom interview about how he is staying positive in these trying times.
Speaking from his home in Boulder, Colorado, he said that the pandemic for many is a day-to-day process and thatitwas important to remember that it will not last. However, one has to be ready to face raw emotions that can ensue due to an uncertain future.
“I think what is important is that we don’t downplay the emotional toll it is taking on us. We are in this together, so we need to practise empathy because it is a universal experience,’’ remarked Richards.
Speaking of his predicament of not being able to travel, he said: “It [pandemic] has impacted my career dramatically as a photographer, I haven’t been able to travel in the same way as I was able to in the past. Continuing to make money when your industry is dependant on movement is a struggle. It has been a rough moment for me as a professional photographer.”
Opting to look on the brighter side of things, he continued, saying: “Conversely, one thing I have used asa positive at this moment is my fitness, diving deep into training as much as I can, while still being able to make enough money to put food on the table.
“I am not a wealthy person. I have to strategically plan these things out. It has been a gift in some ways in that I have been able to learn to tighten my belt. On the other side of it, I have been able to reassess what I want in the future and what I want my future to look like. It has given me a lot of time to train, and become fit, and be ready for my next trip.
“I think gratitude is how we should approach any moment like this. It is too easy to get sucked into negativity right now. If we find ourselves in a negamoment tive and reframe that into gratitude and latch on to that, that is the most productive way out.”
As for his upcoming attempt at scaling Everest next spring with Ecuadorian mountaineer Esteban “Topo” Mena, Richards said they plan to try a new route, climbing from the northeast face of Everest.
Speaking on his last failed attempt, he said: “We didn’t make it to the top. The real definition of failure in alpine climbing is dying, so in that way, we succeeded as we didn’t die. Our main goal next spring is to come home safely.
“Right now we are training and getting our bodies ready to do everything we can to establish a baseline of fitness that is going to sustain us in that climb.”
Elaborating on his fitness regimen, he said it was a day in day out process.
He trains anywhere from an hour-and-a-half to eight hours a day. Fitness and nutrition, two pinnacles in the life of any professional athlete, are the main focus because he said part of fitness is also recovery and rest.
“This is where we make our biggest gain. Think of it as a three-pronged approach from where you have the least amount of stress and the most amount of rest in your life to be able to recover from optimised training that targets your weaknesses but also reinforces your strengths,” noted Richards.
“I do a lot of volume training, closer to the event, which means lots of low intensity, low heart rate long endurance days up in the mountains. Right now, I am focusing more on strength and explosiveness. Building a big internal engine as it were and as we get closer to January, we will start to infuse more of that volume training into the cycles.”
When it comes to inspiration, Richards said the beauty and complexity of mystery found in our natural world is the greatest driving force for him to go out there and capture in some small form that overwhelming sense of beauty in nature.
He is also inspired to encourage people to prioritise the need to care for the natural world as he does.
“This has always been my biggest inspiration: how do we get people to connect with nature? To genuinely and authentically engage with the natural world so that they choose a pathway that is more cohesive with the rest of the human family and in line with the environment that we inhabit.
“How do we get them to engage so that they become stewards of that environment and act on behalf of it and not against it?”
Speaking on the complexity of his work and how he addresses working in hostile environments, Richards said: “Many of my assignments for National Geographic have been to difficult environments that demanded a certain degree of
I THINK GRATITUDE IS HOW WE SHOULD APPROACH ANY MOMENT LIKE THIS
persistence, perseverance and fortitude, but it is only in hindsight this becomes illuminated because in the moment, you feel it is second-hand nature.
“Your goal is to survive. Your goal is to tell the story of that survival in this environment and in doing so, you are connecting with the vastness of human potential and hopefully telling that story and inspiring others to reach their full potential while also placing that in the context of the natural world.’’
Richards, who has also worked on conflict stories, picked scaling 8,000m peaks such as Mount Everest to describe his story of human potential. Besides capturing some awesome scenes on such expeditions, he is always on the lookout for human stories amidst the treacherous environment he tends to thrive in. Switching to survival mode has become second nature.
Find out more about “Inspiring Greatness” at rolls-roycemotorcars.com.