Behind the Scenes - The Mountain Guide
I like getting into the mountains…
I grew up skiing, camping, trail running, and started climbing at the end of high school. Having spent most my life on the coasts, I was really intrigued by the new skills that were required to get into the mountains. It wasn’t as easy as throwing on a swimsuit and jumping in the ocean.
There were rope systems I needed to learn, avalanche class I needed to take, and mentors I needed to find for all of the safety requirements that I wanted to fulfill before going onto gnarlier things in the outdoors.
Where “The Mountain Guide” idea began…
When I started attending school at Colorado College in 2014 I began taking on more responsibility in the outdoor education department by leading dozens of trips in a variety of disciplines for other students. It was there I realized that I definitely had a solid background in outdoors skills but there was still so much to learn. I’ve always been somebody that’s been okay with being a beginner. I like trying new things and I’m relatively settled with the idea of failure. This also means I feel really comfortable putting my ego aside and seeking out mentorship from people that are more experienced to me.
So, enter Pikes Peak Alpine School.
I was taking my AIARE 1 avalanche safety course with them and was at the beginning stages of my filmmaking / photography career when I wanted to begin to photograph more mountain-based activities. I felt the need to show the work that I wanted to get hired for and figured the best way to do that would be to get into the outdoors in a greater capacity than what I was doing through school. I offered Pikes Peak Alpine School an exchange where I would photograph their trips thus giving me an excuse to shadow mountain guides and learn by experience.
I connected with Pete Lardy, the owner of Pikes Peak Alpine School, via email but it took us over a year to connect in person because of both of our crazy travel schedules. Partially due to my persistence in emailing Pete, we finally planned a day in the backcountry together. That first day was amazing. We went out with a few other guides and scored almost 4 feet of fresh powder in the Rocky Mountains..
From there, I photographed and filmed a snow climbing course and a glacier travel course. We had three great days of footage and some ideas began brewing on how I can make this more meaningful for Pete and Pikes Peak Alpine School. Through all of these adventures I learned that Pete was training for is international mountain guarding certification (IFMGA) - a process that has taken him over 10 years to complete. He was set to take his final exam just a few months after we started filming then Covid hit and his exam was pushed back a year. He was definitely bummed but what was an unfortunate setback for his perceived path seemed like an amazing opportunity for us. We now had an extra year to peace this story together… and that’s exactly what we did.
Learning the Soft Skills of a Mountain Guide
We skied more, we traveled to Vegas go rock climbing, we went ice climbing and hung out at his house with his wife. I got a glimpse into what his life as a mountain guide was really about. Pete is an amazing athlete, and accomplished outdoorsman, and a skilled mountaineer but what I learned from watching him over the course of two years is that what makes Pete Lardy great is his personality. Pete doesn’t just teach outdoor skills, he teaches people. He coaches them through feeling scared, shares their excitement when they overcome adversity, and empathizes with them when they’re feeling tired.
I created this documentary during the first two full-time years of my professional career as an adventure filmmaker. In between shoots with Pete I would travel to different countries to film trail running, surfing and rock climbing. The outdoors skills I took from those shoots I was able to apply to this one. However, it was most important for me to take the soft skills that I learned from Pete into the rest of my career. I repeatedly watched Pete treat others with kindness, greet them with enthusiasm and connect on a deeper level because of the activities we all were doing in the mountains. As bigger budgets and higher stakes begin to materialize in the other aspects of my career I wanted it to still feel like it did with Pete and his clients in the mountains - big smiles and happy memories.
Film Screenings in Colorado
When we finished the film we got a chance to have a handful of film screenings around Colorado. It was such a joy to stand on stages with over 100 people in the audience listening to our stories and l aughing alongside us as we would recount the hilarious moments of filming, and seeing first hand Pete’s expertise in the mountains. It wasn’t just me, Pete, a couple of his clients and a camera with us anymore. We were able to bring together a huge community of people to experience what I experienced out there in the mountains - hope, joy, and adventure.
If you’d like to support the film and watch Pete Lardy in action check it out below. It’s by donation so whatever you can afford is totally okay, I appreciate you reading this far and hope you enjoy the film!
Watch The Mountain Guide below!!
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Connect with Roo!
Roo is a commercial/documentary filmmaker and photographer based in Boulder, Colorado but travels all around the world for his filmmaking career. He has produced films for Outside Magazine in Ireland, camera operated for Netflix in the Rocky Mountain West, photographed among indigenous communities in Peru and Ecuador, directed videos with professional climbers in Mexico and has received notable recognition in his hometown of Orcas Island in Washington State for his work telling uplifting stories in the outdoor space.