Author: Matt Standal
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Chasing Mountain Lions, Elk, and Wild Pigs across the USA
Montana’s film industry trends toward the wild – literally. If we’re not setting up Western gunfight scenes, or filming bucking broncs, there’s a good chance the job includes fly fishing, elk hunting, or some kind of outdoor activity. I’ve been fortunate enough to walk into Montana’s high country while filming various hunts, including whitetail deer,…
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Chief Nerd in Montana’s Film Industry
My path as a journalist and cameraman has taken a few unexpected turns over the years, with my recent foray into the Montana film world representing a happy detour. Interestingly, my move to Bozeman coincided with the opening of the Yellowstone Film Ranch, a small western film set constructed in the nearby Paradise Valley, about…
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Ski Guiding in Japan – Achieving My Goal
Many of us set difficult goals. It’s a necessary life skill. You save for a new car, complete a college degree, work toward a promotion, or go on that dream vacation. For the last five years, I’ve been working on a much different goal. I’ve been dreaming of guiding skiers into the wild mountains of…
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Disappearing Glaciers in Kenai Fjords
We’d been in Anchorage for three nights, and it was just long enough to make me itch for a world without gift shops and cartoon grizzly bears. On my fourth trip to Alaska, I was beginning to understand the further I moved beyond paved roads and restaurants, the better. Our film crew had just documented…
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Surfing an Alaskan Tidal Wave
Situated just east of Anchorage, the 250-mile long Chugach range rises from sea level to glacier-covered peaks that stretch upwards of 13,000 feet. This incredible mountain range towers over thousands of rocky islands, and encompasses dozens of jagged fjords that cut inland from the Gulf of Alaska. Massive brown bears live here, along with moose…
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The Longest Day of the Year on Mount Baker
“You’ll be roping up from here,” said our instructor, gesturing to the mound of glittering, melted snow that stretched onward for a quarter mile. “Beyond this, it’s actual glaciated terrain.” I looked at my partner Jeff – a blueberry growing heli ski guide in training from California – and he seemed pretty chill about the…
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Visiting Alaska’s Volcanic Desert
The twin-engine Otter rumbled through the low clouds, banking a huge turn before touching down on the ash flat. Exhausted, and fearing a major delay due to bad weather, our camera crew let out a collective sigh of relief. Our six-man team from ABC’s Rock the Park had been huddled in the freezing rain, backs…
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Filming Shipwrecks in the Caribbean
Getting paid to bring a camera underwater has been my dream for over a decade. As a PADI scuba instructor who worked in Florida and Hawaii, I was always fascinated with underwater camera equipment. However, my job was to teach students, not snap photos. That all changed last year with the show Rock the Park,…
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Walking on Waterfalls in Jasper National Park
Staring into a mist of freezing water flowing down a 10-meter chute, I asked the obvious question: “I haven’t rappelled in a while … can’t you just lower me down?” “No, we made a plan to rappel, so we’re sticking to it,” said my grizzled, French-Canadian guide. His voice was drowned out by the current’s…
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Climbing the Skillet Glacier in GTNP
Being new to technical mountaineering, I decided to make my first project a glacier climb and ski descent in the beautiful Teton range. My subject was 12,600′ Mt. Moran, one of the biggest and isolated peaks in the range. The idea was hatched in late June. Bags were packed, bindings were adjusted, and crampons and…
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Why I Drove 800 miles to Canada for an Avalanche Class
Two bighorn rams stood peacefully in the icy roadway while semi trucks and Subarus swerved around them. Welcome to British Columbia in November. I was driving in third gear down Kootenai pass in a snowstorm, headed to the Monashee Mountains to study snow. A nearby sign read “Avalanche Area, No Stopping.” I slowed down just…
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Japan’s First Heli and Cat Op Takes Flight
The HBC heli landing on Shiribetsu-Dake with Mt. Yotei in the background. UPDATE: The Hokkaido Backcountry Club has been awarded “World’s Best Heli Ski Operator” at the 2016 World Ski Awards in Kitzbuhel, Austria, Nov. 19, 2016 Deep inside a secret government facility in Tokyo is a master list of things that shouldn’t happen in…
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Hokkaido Backcountry Project accepted to Whistler Film Fest
? I’m proud to say that my Kickstarter-funded film “The Hokkaido Backcountry Project” has been accepted to the Whistler Film Festival, and will premiere Thursday, Dec. 3, alongside Mike Douglas’ amazing film Eclipse. So much credit goes to the professional guides, skiers, and wonderful local people of Niseko, Japan for helping me tell the story of the history…
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Creating the Hokkaido Backcountry Project
Pilot Inada-san lands his helicopter on Shiribetsu-Dake in the Hokkaido Backcountry – Photo: Clayton Kernaghan I’ve been working with Black Diamond Lodge in Niseko, Japan along with Dragon Helicopter from the island of Honshu to create the Hokkaido Backcountry Project Kickstarter. Building a Kickstarter can be difficult — especially when you’re working with partners in…
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Shooting ‘Survivor’ in Nicaragua
Here’s a self portrait after skinny dipping in a dirty lake on top of a volcano in order to wash an itchy rash off my butt. The rash started spreading from my wrists to my arms, then the back of my hands swelled up. I was hiking through the Nicaraguan jungle – a cloud forest…
