Author
Rick Ridgeway, 52, has been a leading climber and adventurer for over 35 years. For the last 25 years, he has made his passion his vocation, producing over 15 documentary films for, among others, ABC, NBC and ESPN; and has taken home several awards, including an Emmy for an Everest show in 1983. He has written five books, including the highly acclaimed Seven Summits, The Shadow of Kilimanjaro and, most recently, Below Another Sky. He has also authored dozens of articles for such magazines as Outside and National Geographic. Already a widely recognized still photographer in the adventure genre, in 1986, Rick decided to start a stock photo service out of his garage. Adventure Photo and Film became the world's foremost outdoor photography agency. Rick sold the business in 2000 to focus on writing and filmmaking.

Rick's mountaineering career gained momentum in 1976 when he was invited to join the American Bicentennial Everest Expedition. In 1978, he and three companions became the first Americans to reach the summit of K2, and the first ever to complete the ascent without the aid of bottled oxygen. In 1980, his life was reduced to a handful of seconds as an avalanche swept him 1500 feet down a distant peak in Tibet. When it finally stopped one of Rick's best friends, Jonathan Wright, died in his arms despite Rick's efforts to save him."

Today Rick selects expeditions carefully as he continues to explore some of the most remote corners of the world. He made the first traverse of Borneo at its widest point, and sea-kayaked in the remote fiords of the Magellanic Archipelago in Patagonia. He was on the first American mountaineering expedition to Bhutan. In 1996 he walked 300 miles from the summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro to the Indian Ocean (the basis of his book The Shadow of Kilimanjaro), and in 1998 celebrated Christmas on the first big wall climb ever completed in Antarctica. In 1999 he made the most poignant trip of his career?crossing Tibet one side to the other, ending at the remote mountain where Jonathan died 20 years before. Accompanying Rick was Jonathan's daughter, Asia, who was only 16 months old when her father died. At 19,000 feet, they found Jonathan's grave and reburied him. The journey is the subject of Rick's most recent book, Below Another Sky.

Rick lives in Ojai, California, with his wife and three children.