Here is the final long form edit of “The Denali Experiment.” I just watched it again last night and laughed when I realized how little ski footage is in the movie. I guess it is the antithesis of the modern ski porn flick. Lots of rock star skiers and not much skiing! Well, hopefully having a cool narrative helps the piece along. It was a tough piece to put together with all the different characters, carrying all of the camera and audio equipment, filming and, of course, all while trying to climb and ski Denali as well. I decided to focus the story on Sage and Lucas and was hoping the piece would give people a sense of who they are besides being rock star skiers/snowboarders. I also wanted to give some insight into all the other interesting characters who were mentoring and helping Sage and Lucas along the way. I often feel like the whole process of skiing and who the skiers actually are gets lost in most of the ski and snowboard films today. I hope you enjoy this one.
Earlier this year, The North Face came to Camp 4 Collective and asked us to put together a few ideas for a 30-second national broadcast commercial spot. It was The North Face’s first major push into national broadcast TV commercials. There was a lot of pressure to create something amazing, something that would speak to a broad general audience, but still remain authentic to the brand and its core community of climbers, skiers and mountaineers. I wrote out a couple concepts and we finally agreed on a ski mountaineering spot that we would shoot in the Tetons showing several aspects of the ski mountaineering experience. The request was to showcase the concept “Athlete Tested, Expedition Proven.” The North Face wanted us to show their product, from jackets to tents to gloves, getting used by real North Face Athletes in really severe conditions to prove the point.
On our end, we wanted to blend the up-close, in-your-face, participatory-style footage, for which Camp 4 is known, with some epic aerial footage. Camp 4 managed the mountain logistics and climbing cinematography and brought in Curt Morgan from Brain Farm to shoot the aerials. We thought this would be the best way to showcase the product and give viewers a sense of the scale and beauty of the mountains in which the athletes were “testing” the equipment.
As with most of the shoots we do in the mountains, there were seemingly infinite variables to manage. After a few weeks of writing, planning and producing, we brought the Camp 4 crew up to Jackson, along with Hilary O’Neill as talent (myself being the other climber and skier), met several times with Curt from Brain Farm and spent another week putting together all the logistics of the shoot. We slimmed down our shooting package for mountain shooting, planned climbing routes, scheduled guides to run safety, hired porters to bring up loads to a high camp, planned food, made contingency plans etc. Last but not least, we watched the weather and got daily reports on snow pack and stability up high. After a few days of waiting for weather to clear, we finally headed in. Game on.
More than anything, we wanted to create something real and raw, so we approached the shoot like a mini expedition. We tried to go as light and fast as possible and needed a really strong and experienced back country camera team. On one of our final days of shooting, we started from the valley and climbed most of the way up the Middle Teton, then dropped down and climbed the South Teton. We were carrying full camera loads and shooting on the fly. It was a ton of vert, especially considering how much we had going on between climbing, skiing, filming and coordinating with the aerial team. It was a pretty good effort by everyone involved and it was really cool to see it all come together.
Check out this behind the scenes piece to get a sense of how the shoot went. The commercial is currently playing on prime time TV around the country. Hope you enjoy it.
Free-ride skier Sage Cattabriga-Alosa and big mountain snowboarder Lucas Debari step out of their elements and make an attempt to climb, ski and snowboard Denali. Sage and Lucas get a helping hand from a huge cast of seasoned and professional climbers and ski mountaineers: Hilaree O’Neill, Conrad Anker, Ingrid Backstrom, Jim Zellers, Emilio Previtali and Giulia Monego, as the two embark on the hardest expedition of their lives.
Jimmy and Camp 4 Collective are excited to finally release their “On Assignment” video that they produced, directed, shot and edited for National Geographic. The video was created during Jimmy’s assignment to cover the climbing culture and cutting edge of climbing in Yosemite for the May 2011 issue of National Geographic.
This video is one of three videos we (Camp 4 Collective) filmed in Yosemite to accompany the Yosemite print article in National Geographic’s May issue of the magazine. The video highlights Dean Potter’s attempt to build and walk a highline over Yosemite Falls. With the raging water of the falls below him and the constant wind and spray, Dean considers this line one of the hardest lines he’s ever attempted. Check it out and see if he makes it……
Here is the final Towers of the Ennedi Film Festival Edit. This is the final version of the film that is being shown at film festivals and includes all new graphic animations. Enjoy!
If you’ve ever wondered what it takes to attempt to climb and ski a 27,940 ft peak in the Himalayas, check out these vids. It’s as close as you’ll probably want to get. Camp 4 cinematographer Henni Van Jaarsveld joined North Face Athletes Kris Erickson and Jamie Laidlaw on their attempt to climb and ski Lhotse, the worlds 4th highest peak. Below are the five video dispatches they sent from the field that tell their epic story.
Here is a sneak peak of Camp 4 Collective’s film festival cut of Towers of the Ennedi. This was the first major expedition where Tim Kemple, Renan Ozturk and myself were all able to collaborate together in the field. We had a lot of fun shooting this piece. Hopefully you’ll be able to catch it on the big screen. The editor’s cut will show at the 5Point Film Festival April 28 - May 1 and the official premiere will be shown at the Telluride Mountainfilm Festival May 27 - May 30.
Here are a few images from my most recent trip to the Ennedi Desert. If you’re wondering where the Ennedi Desert is, that’s OK most people have no idea where it is. I didn’t either until a few days before my trip. The Ennedi is in the northeast corner of Chad, Africa. To get to the Ennedi, you fly N’Djemena, then drive about 50k outside of the city on a narrow two lane highway. At what seems like a very arbitrary point on the road, you make a right hand turn. We drove for four long hot days across the desert and never saw another road again until the last day of a month long trip when we hit the highway on our way back to N’Djemena. Needless to say, it was a wild trip into the heart of the north central African desert.
I ended up in the Ennedi Desert the same way I’ve ended up in a lot of very strange places and situations around the world. It starts with a call from Mark Synnott asking me if I want to go with him on his next trip. Despite my better judgment, I’ve always agreed to go. Some of my fondest memories with Mark include almost drowning in a freezing waterfall 2000ft up a big wall in Borneo, eating coconuts with Fletcher Christian’s very freaked out descendants on Pitcairn Island and, most recently, facing off with a gang of desert marauders trying to rob us at knife point. I often wonder during my trips with Mark if I should have paused for a moment to reflect on our previous experiences together before I had agreed to follow him on another half cocked adventure. I don’t necessarily think it’s his fault that we end up in these situations, but he certainly seems to attract mayhem.
All that being said, Mark is an exceptional person, hilarious to hang out with and definitely makes a pretty good choice for a teammate on expeditions. His nickname has always been Scrappy which he picked up during his years living among the dirtbags in Yosemite. I figured that the moniker was a reference to how scrappy he looked. In Chad, I found out, he is great to have around if there are a bunch of thugs with knives trying to mug you. When the shit hit the fan, Mark was standing by my side with a large spiny branch in hand ready to scrap. He looked rather menacing. “Scrappy” took on a whole new meaning for me.
This is all a bit beside the point. We went to the Ennedi with Alex Honnold, James Pearson, Tim Kemple and Renan Ozturk to seek out unclimbed sandstone towers. We found thousands of them. Since no one had ever climbed there, we went around picking off the most iconic formations we could find. The Ennedit Desert is one of the coolest landscapes I’ve ever been in. Check it.
James Pearson on the first ascent of the Arch of Bishekele.
Our camp below the Arch of Bishekele.
James Pearson and Mark Synnott climbing the first ascent of the Wine Bottle.
Libyan desert traveller offering camel's milk.
James Pearson and Mark Synnott on the first ascent of the Arch of Bishekele.
