Our dear friend Joe Puryear, 37 years old, died last month on the slopes of Labuche Kang, a remote peak in Tibet. Within that short life time is the story of a supreme mountaineer, an accomplished guide book author and a photographer with an unerring genius for capturing the color of life.
I suppose I never really knew Joe Puryear the climber, but the Sherpa family is grateful that he became our friend and the best gear advisor that we could have ever asked for. His influence was instrumental in keeping our brand authentic and the work he did on our catalogs will be an endless testimonial to his love for the camera and for adventure.
I had little idea of his tremendous talent and his accomplishments when he walked into my cramped home office six years ago. I am unsure even today as to what he saw in our struggling story but we immediately connected and he offered to work and travel with me to Nepal on our very first catalog shoot. It was a gigantic leap of faith for both of us, him not knowing if this project would allow him to utilize his talents properly and us not knowing whether we were going to get what we envisioned accomplished. The rest, as they say, is probably the stuff of how friendships get built. I saw how he worked at very close quarters, his meticulous attention to the smallest details and a relentless drive for excellence. His integrity was enviable and his low key approach to not saying much but telling it all to you probably evoked our own spirit to remain true to our cause throughout our journey.
He brought the same honest passion to his climbing. Simply put, he climbed because he loved to do it. In this, he had a kindred spirit in his wife Michelle, whom he met on a climb in Alaska. In my mind, Joe was that rare iconoclast mountaineer. Along with his friend and climbing partner Dave Gottlieb, they found new peaks to conquer not to stoke their own swagger but more because of the sheer nirvana of having stepped on a piece of earth where nobody had been before. We were all able to vicariously journey with Joe and Dave on these expeditions through the immediate beauty of Joe’s photos and blogs that informed us of where they were each step of the way.
My lasting memory of Joe Puryear will be his calming presence on the summer slopes of Mount Ranier in 2007 right after my heart surgery; always staying close to me while I struggled with my poles, gasping and wheezing and being afraid of the immense mountain in front of me. "You’re doing great Tashi, and look you’ve come this far already!" Joe took a photo of me that day, sliding down in triumphant glee for having scaled halfway up a peak that he must have topped dozens of times. Thank you Joe.
(In honor of Joe Puryear’s memory, Sherpa Adventure Gear will be sponsoring the complete education of an underprivileged child at the Rato Bangla School, Kathmandu ).