Rab Skyline BTS
In October 2019, Rab approached us asking to create a whole range of content for the launch of their new trail running gear. The challenge (other than the amount of content they needed) find was to find summer conditions in the Alps - with winter right around the corner. They wanted epic ridgelines, mountain peaks, forests as backdrops, and rain, wind and sunny conditons depending on the product. We accepted the challenge and got planning. Dividing the products based on the weather we needed, we decided to start with the lighter warm weather items, leaving the wet weather gear for later in the month when the likelihood of stormier conditions were more likely.
The forecast was not looking promising, and the whole project was starting look a bit of a race against time. There was a weather window of clear sunshine for the few days pretty much immediately after Rab had confirmed the shoot, but after that things looked pretty ominous. You can never really predict the weather but with winter slowly making its way towards us we had no choice but get shooting immediately. This meant they needed to ship the products to us as soon as humanly possible.
Getting shipments of products is rarely straight forward in Chamonix, regardless of the delivery service there always seems to be a problem, and naturally the one time we really needed punctuality - it didn’t arrive. Customer service was poor, much like our French, so we eventually drove to the depot where the package had last been tracked -and after 2 hours of refusing to move until they let us search every square inch of the warehouse ourselves, they eventually found it. Game on !
We arranged to meet our 4 athletes that evening and start shooting at dawn the following morning in the Interlaken area in Switzerland. After handing everyone a welcoming beer, we put them all to work and got a conveyor system going of peanut butter and jam sandwiches making. The universal best snack food to have in the mountains!
The Swiss leg of the shoot lasted 5 days, we shot from dawn to dusk each day and overnighted in various mountain huts. From shooting on the infamous Hardergrat at sunrise to sunsets in Grosse Scheidegg, the Bernese Alps did not disappoint.
Next up we decided to shoot in the Chamonix area for our wet and grey weather days. Finding cast that are available last minute can have it’s challenges when a shoot is so reliant on weather, thankfully Chamonix is filled with keen athletes looking for any excuse to be in the mountains (and get paid!).
At this stage we were well into the autumn, the weather looked stormy as desired but this also had it’s challenges. As we were still shooting summer gear, the wardrobe wasn’t exactly the warmest. Think snow and sleet at 2000m, and you’re wearing a pair of thin shorts. Between takes we would need to huddle together under umbrellas throwing jackets and other layers over the athletes to keep warm. But everyone ploughed on through and the athletes were troopers.
Our last shoot day ended on top of Chamonix’s Balcon Nord, a beautiful well known trail that overlooks the Chamonix valley. We wrapped at around 6pm to shoot the sunset, and just after the lifts had shut. We began our 1,200 metre decent by head torch - a long slog after a cold long day in the mountains but the pizza and beers awaiting us at basecamp made up for the descent. As fun as it is to travel for shoots, sometimes nothing beats your local takeout and your own bed!