A YouTube podcast episode of 'A Bit of Optimism' featuring Simon Sinek interviewing Corey Richards. Early transcript covers Richards' major climbing feats—summiting Mount Everest without oxygen and being the first American to climb an 8,000m peak in winter—and an account of surviving an avalanche; the conversation quickly shifts to his emotional struggle and lack of peace after achieving peak success.
Chapters
You are officially the first guest who. When I said, would you like a drink? You said, I'd love a scotch.
But let's be clear. It wasn't like, drunk history.
No, it's. Yeah, it's not drunk history. What happens after you reach the top? There's only one place to go. Corey Richards has literally reached the top of the world. He climbed Mount Everest without oxygen. He's also the first American to climb an 8,000 meter or 26,000 foot peak during the winter. 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.
We're in the middle of Pakistan, this huge glacial valley. I hear this, like, crack. I know what that is. And it's an avalanche. And of course, in my mind I'm like, okay, I'm dying. Like, I'm dying. 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. That photo became arguably my most famous cover of National Geographic. Put on the COVID of National Geographic.
But there's a twist. After all that success, Corey did not find peace. Instead, he found chaos.
Sometimes I sit in my car and I scream as loud as I fucking can and just cry because.
Just hurts so fucking much. Any one of these events is life altering. And I'm trying to juggle four at the same time. I built this identity as a photographer and as a climber. And now none of those things existed. Our wounds become our weapons in both positive and negative ways.
