28 PUNCHMAGAZINE.COM Guides typically carry 30 to 40 pounds of supplies—from long underwear and insulating layers for rain, snow, extreme heat and sun, to rescue gear, first aid kits, freezedried food and white-gas fueled stoves to melt snow. On Denali, mountain guides pull sleds to and from base camps, adding to the hardships. Heidi says the key quality needed in an expedition leader is a “mental edge.” “Not only are you stronger than your clients, you’re a million times more ef- {punchline} school and in 1994, when she was in her 20s, she switched to mountain guiding for Rainier Mountaineering Inc. There, she met her future husband, Tap Richards, and over the years, they often worked together. Heidi started guiding international trips in 1997. In 2001, an American client hired a team that included Heidi and Tap with the goal of climbing the seven summits in five years. “He was a tough guy, mentally very tough; we had to climb yearround to keep his goal and stay in shape,” Heidi says. He made it to the top on six of the climbs, but on his last try at age 53, he did not complete the seventh summit in the Himalayas. Mount Everest, the highest mountain in the world at 29,032 feet, “just proved to be too much,” she says. Heidi estimates the whole trip— including helicopters, Sherpas and yaks—cost about $400,000. Heidi recalls the group spent two and a half months on that expedition in 2006, starting with a two-week-long walk to Everest’s south-side base camp at 17,500 feet. The team worked its way up to Camp III and Camp IV, before attempting to summit via ABOVE: (clockwise from top) Heidi and husband Tap celebrate back at base camp after reaching the summit of Mount Everest in 2006; Heidi on Mount Everest; Tap and Heidi raise their arms in triumph on the way down from the summit. ficient in everything that you do because you have so much experience,” she observes. One of her mountain-guide hacks? Heidi prestuffs her coat with snacks, so there’s no delay when she needs to eat and no disrobing needed to get to the food. “We don’t let ourselves get cold or too hot, but if we do, we can handle it because our tolerance is so high for physical discomfort,” she says of mountain guides. Heidi grew up in Tacoma, Washington, on a ranchette where hard physical work came with the territory. After high school she went to massage PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF: HEIDI RICHARDS
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