Rick Ridgeway is an American mountaineer, adventurer, environmentalist, writer, filmmaker, and businessman. He began his mountaineering career in the late 1960s and early 1970s, making first ascents and new routes on expeditions to the Peruvian Andes. In 1976, he joined the American Bicentennial Everest Expedition, which led to his participation in the 1978 expedition to K2.