"Cory Richards has done it all: he's stood at the top of the world, climbed imposing mountain faces alone in the dark, kayaked 1,000 miles of the Australian coast, and become the only American to summit an 8,000 meter peak in winter. Through the course of a tumultuous life, Richards has learned to expose himself to the most extreme situations in order to quiet the chaos within-to risk his life in order to save it. Growing up in the small ski town of Alta, Utah, Cory was constantly surrounded by the outdoors. His father, a high school teacher and ski patroller, spent years teaching Cory and his brother how to ski, climb, mountaineer, and survive in the wild. However, despite a seemingly idyllic childhood spent in the mountains, the Richards home was fraught with violence, grief, and mental illness. After being diagnosed with bipolar disorder and dropping out of high school, Cory subsumed himself in the worlds of photography and climbing, seeking out the farthest reaches of the world in order to escape the darkness within himself. Suddenly though, in the midst of a wildly successful career in adventure photography, a catastrophic avalanche changed everything, forcing Cory to confront the trauma of his past and learn to rewrite his own story"-- Provided by publisher.