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RICK RIDGEWAY is an outdoor adventurer, writer and advocate for sustainability and conservation initiatives.

For 15 years, Rick was the VP of Environmental Affairs and then VP of  Public Engagement at Patagonia, Inc. During his tenure he has worked  with teams to develop and launch environmental and sustainability  initiatives including Freedom to Roam, the Footprint Chronicles, the  Responsible Economy Campaign and Worn Wear. He also was founding  chairman of the Sustainable Apparel Coalition, developer of the Higg  Index and today the largest apparel, footwear and home textile trade  organization in the world.

In addition, Rick is recognized as one of the world’s foremost  mountaineers. With three companions, he was the first American to summit  K2, and he has done other significant climbs and explorations on all  continents. He has written seven books, many magazine stories and  produced and directed dozens of television shows. National Geographic  honored him with its “Lifetime Achievement in Adventure” award, as well  as The Explorers Club’s Lowell Thomas Award.

In corporate sustainability, he is emeritus board member of the  Sustainable Apparel Coalition and on the board of its for-profit arm,  HiggCo. In conservation, he serves on the boards of Tompkins  Conservation, the Turtle Conservancy, One Earth and the Kiewit Family  Foundation.

Rick lives in Ojai, California, and has three children and four grandchildren.

About His Recent Book

At the beginning of his memoir Life Lived Wild,  Adventures at the Edge of the Map, Rick Ridgeway tells us that if you  add up all his many expeditions, he’s spent over five years of his life  sleeping in tents: “And most of that in small tents pitched in the  world’s most remote regions.” It’s not a boast so much as an  explanation. Whether at elevation or raising a family back at sea level,  those years taught him, he writes, “to distinguish matters of  consequence from matters of inconsequence.” He leaves it to his readers,  though, to do the final sort of which is which.

Some of his travels made, and remain, news: the first American ascent  of K2; the first direct coast-to-coast traverse of Borneo; the first  crossing on foot of a 300-mile corner of Tibet so remote no outsider had  ever seen it. Big as these trips were, Rick keeps an eye out for the  quiet surprises, like the butterflies he encounters at 23,000 feet on K2  or the furtive silhouettes of wild-eared pheasants in Tibet.

What really comes through best in Life Lived Wild, though, are his  fellow travelers. There’s Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard, and Doug  Tompkins, best known for cofounding The North Face but better remembered  for his conservation throughout South America. Some companions don’t  make the return journey. Rick treats them all with candor and  straightforward tenderness. And through their commitments to protecting  the wild places they shared, he discovers his own.

“Rick Ridgeway invited me on my first National Geographic-supported  expedition and taught me how to film and tell a good story. In Life  Lived Wild, Rick recounts his legendary career as explorer, climber and  conservationist, and captures the essence of a lifetime of  story-telling.” – Jimmy Chin, Filmmaker and Academy Award Winner

The event will include a Q&A immediately following his  presentation. His books will be for sale in the lobby before and after  the event.

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