Cory Richards recounts a winter expedition to Gashabram 2 in Pakistan where, after climbing through the night on February 2nd in extreme cold (reported −51 °C in the tent and ≈−80 °C at the summit), his team was struck by a large avalanche in a glacial valley. He describes being lifted by the air blast (thrown ~500 ft), recording immediate video of himself distraught, and later taking a shell‑shocked photograph that became a National Geographic cover and accelerated his career. He also explains experiencing complex PTSD and prolonged survival-mode coping after the event.
Questions this video answers
February 2nd.
Minus 51 degrees centigrade (−51 °C).
About minus 80 degrees centigrade (≈−80 °C).
Gashabram 2.
He said it is the 13th highest mountain in the world.
Chapters
Didn't you, like, survive an avalanche?
I did survive an avalanche. So I can. I can tell the story. I mean, sure, let's go. So I went to climb this mountain called Gashabram 2, which is a mountain. It's the 13th highest mountain in the world. We're in the middle of Pakistan in winter. We leave the tent, it's minus 51 centigrade in the tent. We climb through the night on February 2nd, and we get to the top, and up there it's about minus 80 and centigrade, centigrade. We make it down to Camp One. The next day, you're in this huge glacial valley. Big, big glacier with huge crevasses. And on either side there are these big mountains. And now they have three feet of snow on them. And the wind's been blowing, so it's created a very hazardous situation. And I hear this, like, crack. And I'm just. I'm like, I know what that is. And it's an avalanche. And I look over my shoulder, I see it coming. I say, run, but there's no way to run. I mean, you're in waist deep snow. We were mostly taken by the air blast. It just picks us up and throws us 500ft. And of course, in my mind, I'm like, okay, I'm dying. Like, I'm dying. Long story short, we all ended up on top. I would say miraculously, immediately after. As soon as I could get my camera out, I turned it on and I. And I took this video of me crying, just like sobbing, because I think there was this sort of dissociation. I was trying to get away from the experience. So I put a camera between me and it. And then about an hour later, I took this other photo of me looking at the camera and I've got all this ice all over my beard and just. I look shell shocked. That photo became arguably my most famous photo ever. Cover of National Geographic put on the COVID of National Geographic. It opened the door to the skyrocketing of my career. And at the same time, because of complex post traumatic stress, all. All of the stuff that happened in childhood, I experienced a profound and prolonged episode of ptsd. Because now I'm in survival mode, which is what PTSD is. I'm constantly just trying to survive and sustain, using all of these coping mechanisms to try to calm that down.
