'Cold' an interview with climber photographer Cory Richards – The Joy Trip Project

Making the rounds at mountain film festivals all over the world is a new movie by Anson Fogel and Cory Richards. In the classic style of adventure storytelling Richards shares his tale of three climbers in his award-winning film 'Cold'. “It’s a very raw real look into what’s kind of going on inside my head as I did a climb with Simone Moro and Denis Urubko last winter on a peak called Gasherbrum II,” Richards said in an interview. http://joytrip2019.mhwebstaging.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/Cold1.mp3 Ascending one of the highest peaks in the world at temperature 50 degrees below zero as the film opens Richards can’t help but ask himself a quintessential question.   “What the f#@%! am I doing here? We have to get down,” he says in the film.   Gasherbrum II stands more than 8,000 feet above sea level.   “For you guys who aren’t good at math that’s above 26, 240 feet. There’s 14 of them in the world. Obviously Everest is the highest,” Richards said. “And 9 of those peaks are in Nepal and Tibet. And 5 are in Pakistan. And for the past 26 years since the Polish advent of winter 8,000 meter climbing all of the peaks in Nepal and Tibet had been climbed in winter, but none of the Pakistani 8,000-meter peaks had been successfully climbed in winter.”   Going after this Pakistani summit through a Himalayan winter in the tradition of the great Polish climbers of the last century Richards and his team Italian climber Simone Moro and Denis Urubko of Kazakhstan attempted to do what no one had done before.   “So when we did it on February 2nd 2011 it was actually a monumental achievement. And it’s funny for me to say that because I don’t necessarily look at it in that way. That’s not something that I think. But that’s how it’s viewed,” Richards said. “ ‘Cold’ is basically a representation of what I think goes on in everybody’s head when they’re climbing. They think about their family. They think about their life. They think about the doubts they have. And hopefully it’s just a real perspective, verses a chest pounding triumphant heroic film. It’s not meant to be that.”   At the 2011 Banff Mountain Film Festival ‘Cold’ took the grand prize. Climber, photographer and filmmaker Cory Richards also took a few minutes to tell me about his life now making movies on the highest mountains in the world.     JTP: What’s really fascinating is that you actually did all the photography yourself with a handheld camera throughout the entire expedition. At high altitude that’s a lot to take on in addition to actually doing the climb. What was it like to be able to be responsible for both climbing and surviving on Gasherbraum II and taking pictures?   Cory: You know it’s funny a lot of people talk about just that fact, that…”what’s it like to film up there?” And for me, coming from a photography background, coming from a film background, I don’t actually think of it like that because that’s just why I get invited to go on these trips because that’s my job. So I think it’s an added aspect, but it’s something that’s sort of hard for me to describe because it’s not a tangible thought process any more. This is what I’m doing here. This is what I have to do. So I’m doing it.   JTP: At the same time though you also have to have the presence of mind to set the shot, to be able to while Simone is puking on the summit you’re there holding the camera.   Cory: Yeah JTP: You can’t be on your knees Cory: Yeah, it’s weird! It’s so true. You have to go fast sometimes to get ahead. You’re trying to be the fly on the wall. But what’s interesting is you’re also doing the climb. So at the same time Simone’s puking, I want to puke. But as a photographer and a filmmaker you realize that that’s a important and special moment. You hate to see your friends suffering but you have to realize that that’s pivotal. Something’s happening in front of you. And because you’re thinking about all that you’re realizing that your own sensations become muted. You put that on hold.