Filmmakers & Presenters
Britt Caillouette
Britton Caillouette grew up surfing the beaches of Southern California, until at age fifteen he was diagnosed with a rare form of bone cancer and suffered an amputation of his left leg. While fighting to overcome the disease, he was invited to travel to Eastern Australia with a group of professional surfers who were there to make a surfing documentary. The experience and the film, entitled Shelter, made a lasting impression––raising the courage he needed to remain active while also inspiring his creative future. A student of history and film at Stanford University, Britton was amazed by his friend Nicholai Lidow’s quest for social justice and surf in remote parts of the world. Their first film, Sliding Liberia, was born out of this friendship and a shared mission to restore humanity to a film genre that seemed to have lost it.
Tommy and Mike Caldwell
Tommy Caldwell
Tommy Caldwell started climbing at the age of three. His father, Mike, was a mountain guide and took Tommy everywhere to climb. After spending much of his youth sport climbing and establishing America's hardest climb (Flex Luthor 5.15), Tommy has in recent years focused all of his energy on big
wall free climbing. He has free climbed ten routes on El Capitan and established four of those, among them the Dihedral Wall, the world's hardest long free climb. In 2005 he stunned the climbing world by free climbing two routes on El Capitan in less than 24 hours. Tommy splits his time between his home in Colorado and Yosemite with his wife Beth Rodden.
Mike Caldwell
Mike Caldwell, 57, grew up in northern California and began climbing at age 13 when he and several buddies decided to teach themselves (a number of guardian angels were obviously in attendance). His best climbing achievement during the early days was a 3 ½-day ascent of El Capitan's Nose route using goldline ropes, hip belays and a high percentage of homemade pitons.
A UC Berkeley grad, Mike was hired to teach junior high P.E. in Loveland, CO in 1973. One constant throughout Mike’s 30 years teaching was his involvement in outdoor education. He built a climbing wall at Bill Reed Middle School and started a climbing club. Unsuspecting children showed up and became Mike Auldridge, Mike Wray, John Stack, Adam Stack and Tommy Caldwell — all 5.14 rock jocks.
Rock climbing and moutaineering were a constant in Mike's life no matter what else was going on, including winning bodybuilding competitions. When the Caldwells moved from Loveland, CO up the hill to Estes Park in 1984, Mike started guiding for the Colorado Mountain School to supplement his teaching income. Guiding enabled Mike and eventually Tommy, his son, to travel to Europe and South America to climb.
After retiring from teaching in 2003, Mike switched from guiding climbs to guiding fly fishermen, mistakenly thinking the liability concerns were less. He still climbs and belays for Tommy.
Mike Cerre
Mike has over thirty years experience in broadcast journalism and international television, and owns and runs GLOBE Tv, a San Francisco Bay Area based global production company. His most recent production is a theatrical documentary CSNY: DEJA VU with Neil Young, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. He also recently completed the editorial for a photojournalism book on the global water crisis and the Blue Planet Run.
As the first embed reporter to broadcast from inside Iraq the night of the invasion, his reports were featured on ABC News' World News Tonight with Peter Jennings, Nightline, PrimeTime, Good Morning America and BBC. His reporting earned an Emmy Award, Overseas Press Club Citation, New York Press Club and Sigma Delta Chi Society Awards. Prior to returning to broadcast news after 9/11, he was an executive producer/correspondent for international documentary programs, series and segments for ABC, NBC, HBO, CNN, CNBC, A&E and the Discovery Channel, National Geographic and Disney Channel.
Mike has earned four Emmy Awards in New York and San Francisco for his investigative, feature and special events reportage. His documentary productions have earned the prestigious George Foster Peabody Award, Cable ACE Award and a Cine Golden Eagle. Has been also been a guest lecturer and moderator at major forums including the World Economic Forum, United Nations Foundation, World Affairs Council, Stanford Publishing Conference, the Commonwealth Club and Milken Institute Conference.
After graduating from the University of Notre Dame with a degree in Communications Arts, he served as a Marine officer in Vietnam before starting his broadcasting and communications career.
He lives in Sausalito with his wife and two daughters.
Yvon Chouinard
Yvon Chouinard is founder and owner of Patagonia, Inc., based in Ventura, California. He began in business by designing, manufacturing, and distributing rock climbing equipment in the late 1950’s. His tinkering led to an improved ice axe that facilitated the French ice climbing technique and is the basis for modern ice axe design. In 1964 he produced his first mail order catalog, a one page mimeographed sheet containing advice not to expect fast delivery during climbing season. Business grew slowly until 1972 when Yvon added rugby shirts to his catalog and his clothing business took off.
In the late 1980’s, Patagonia’s success was such that Yvon considered early retirement. In some ways he would have preferred to disappear into the South Pacific with his fly rod and surfboard. However, he decided to continue directing Patagonia’s course, in part to use the company to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis. As part of this goal, Patagonia instituted an Earth Tax, pledging 1% of sales to the preservation and restoration of the natural environment. In 2001, Yvon, along with Craig Mathews, owner of West Yellowstone’s Blue Ribbon Flies, started One Percent For The Planet, an alliance of businesses that contribute at least 1 percent of their net annual sales to groups on a list of researched and approved environmental organizations.
Yvon spends much of his time in the outdoors and serving on the boards of numerous environmental groups. “I work every day of my life. My job is to be the ‘outside’ man, studying lifestyles around the world, coming up with ideas for new products, new market trends, seeing that Patagonia stays relevant in a rapidly changing world.”
About Let My People Go Surfing
In Let My People Go Surfing, Yvon Chouinard relates his and his company's story and the core philosophies that have sustained Patagonia, Inc. year-in and year-out. This is not another story of a successful businessman who manages on the side to do great good and have grand adventures; it's the story of a man who brought doing good and having grand adventures into the heart of his business model — and who enjoyed even more business success as a result.
Malcolm Daly
Malcolm has been in the outdoor industry since 1975 when he got his first job in a climbing shop while attending Colorado State University (BS, 1978). He has worked as a sales representative, shop manager, forest fire fighter, climbing guide, waiter, cook and marketing director for a large backpack manufacturer. In 1991 he founded Great Trango Holdings to manufacture innovative climbing gear and women's active wear.
Malcolm is a founding board member of the Access Fund, a non-profit organization dedicated to keeping climbing areas open, and served on its board for 13 years. Malcolm is an amputee, having lost a foot to frostbite after a climbing accident in Alaska in 1999. Malcolm is on the board of directors of No Barriers and is the executive director of Paradox Sports, an organization dedicated to providing "inspiration, opportunities and adaptive equipment to the disabled community, empowering their pursuit of a life of excellence through human-powered outdoor sports."
Louie and Lou Dawson
Lou Dawson is a 56-year-old "total outdoorsman" living in Carbondale, Colorado. Along with his wife, Lisa, and 18-year-old son, Louie, he hikes, climbs, hunts, skis, jeeps, snowmobiles, fishes, and bicycles in Colorado and throughout North America. Lou specializes in writing about backcountry skiing and ski mountaineering and is well known as the first man to ski down all 54 of Colorado's 14,000-foot peaks. He is the author of Dawson's Guides to Colorado's Fourteeners, several other books, and numerous magazine articles. Lou was inducted into the Colorado Ski Hall of Fame in 2005. Please visit Lou at his website, www.WildSnow.com.
Dick Dorworth
Dick Dorworth writes, skis and climbs based out of Bozeman, Montana and from Ketchum, Idaho, where he is a reporter and columnist for the Idaho Mountain Express.
Dick Dorworth has spent most of his life in the mountains of western America. He was born in Reno, Nevada and grew up in the Sierra Nevada and graduated from the University of Nevada. He has lived, worked, skied and climbed in Europe, Asia, Alaska and South America. He taught and coached skiing for many years and was the men’s coach for the U.S. Ski Team and Director of the Aspen Mountain Ski School. He has been a climbing guide for the Yosemite Mountaineering School, Shasta Mountain Guides and Exum Mountain Guides.
Dick is also a freelance writer whose writing has appeared in many publications, including Ski, Skiing, Powder, Snow Country, Mountain Gazette, Men’s Journal, Climbing, New West, Mariah, Wild Duck Review, Summit and Backpacker. He lives in Ketchum, Idaho where he skis most days during the winter either on his favorite mountain, Baldy, or in the backcountry. In the summer he climbs.
Dorworth is a reporter and regular columnist for the Idaho Mountain Express in Ketchum. He is a registered Democrat who thinks his party needs more calcium in its diet. He is a member of the Sierra Club, but thinks Deep Ecology is closer to the mark.
About Night Driving
Night Driving is a splendid record of one man’s personal journey through the backroads and mountain ranges of the world; woven into the history of a wildly experimental, consciousness-expanding era.
Part Edward Abbey; part Jack Kerouac; part Thomas Wolfe; part Hunter S. Thompson; Night Driving establishes Dorworth as THE “beat” writer of the mountain community, and he may well go down in history as the Godfather of the modern road trip.
Jim Gilchrist
Jim Gilchrist has been in love with wilderness ever since his ascent of Red Hill (2008 feet) near Center Harbor, New Hampshire, at age 6. Fly fishing, skiing, mountaineering and rock climbing are passions that continue to focus and inspire his life. Jim’s wilderness travels have taken him to North and South America, Europe, the Bahamas, the South Pacific and Africa. One of Jim’s most memorable experiences was a hut-to-hut trip in the Italian Dolomites with his wife, Lynn, and two sons, Griffin and Carson.
After graduating from the University of Vermont in 1980 Jim immediately became a full-time climbing bum based out of Boulder, Colorado. When he ran out of chalk it became obvious the only option was to become a Junior High School teacher. He has enjoyed his teaching career immensely, finding that engaging adolescents is as challenging as climbing 5.12, but not as safe. In 1986 Jim moved to Basalt, Colorado to work at the Aspen Community School, where he has been Principal for the past seven years. The position of school Principal receives a rating of about 5.14a/b.
Jim especially enjoys spending time with his family outdoors. This summer they plan to do a sea-kayaking trip near Vancouver Island, B.C.
Simi Hamilton and Ruthie Brown
Simi Hamilton
Simi was born in Aspen, CO where, by age 3, he was more comfortable on his skis than on his feet. He began Nordic ski racing when he was 13 and was later recognized as the top Junior racer in the U.S. from 2003-2006. Currently, he attends Middlebury College in Vermont where he finds time to sneak away to the Adirondacks to climb in and around Keene Valley, NY. Simi has seen racing success on the domestic level as well as international level. He balances the chaotic lifestyle of ski racing with climbing, kayaking, and telemark skiing. For the last three summers, Simi has guided in the Tetons for Exum Mountain Guides. His passion for adventure and the outdoors grows on a daily basis.
Ruthie Brown
Ruthie was raised on Mt Sopris Hereford Ranch in Carbondale, CO. Bucked off a horse by 5. Started adventuring in the Elk Mountains by age 8. Taught valuable lessons by the desert at age 12. Learned to fall at 40. And rooted by this passion for wild places and things…discovered grizzly bear instincts to protect the environment as a lifetime endeavor.
Ruthie is a World Class athlete both as a runner and Nordic skier. She is a record holder and long time coach of the Aspen Valley Ski Club and Rocky Mountain Nordic teams. Her biggest claim to fame: 1968 Champion at the Grease Pig competition at the Carbondale Potatoes Days Rodeo. Greatest accomplishment: Raising two healthy, normal kids.
Hayden and Michael Kennedy
Hayden Kennedy
Hayden has been climbing almost as long as he's been walking, starting out with scrambles among the boulders at Independence Pass when he was 2 years old. Along the way he's climbed in Canada, Australia, Thailand, Italy, and throughout the western United States. His favorites include the cracks and towers of the Utah desert, the steep limestone of Rifle Mountain Park, and the granite walls of Yosemite Valley. His ascents (so far) include 5.13 sport climbs such as Simply Read (Rifle), hard 5.12 trad routes like Romantic Warrior (California Needles) and Positive Vibrations (The Hulk, Sierra Nevada), big walls (Northwest Face of Half Dome and West Face of El Cap, Yosemite), and classic mountain routes (South Face of the Marmolada, Italy).
Michael Kennedy
Michael Kennedy has found inspiration in the mountains for over 35 years and at 56 remains an active rock climber, ski mountaineer, kayaker, and biker. He was a pioneer in winter mountaineering and technical ice climbing in Colorado in the 1970s, and made numerous first ascents and attempts on major alpine climbs in Alaska and the Himalaya through the mid-1990s .
An accomplished photographer and writer, Michael worked as editor and publisher of Climbing Magazine from 1974 to 1998. In addition to his professional experience, he served for nine years on the board of directors of the Access Fund, a climbers' advocacy group based in Boulder, Colorado. He currently is president of the board of trustees for Colorado Rocky Mountain School in Carbondale and is involved as a volunteer with various local organizations.
Michael lives in Carbondale, Colorado, with his wife, Julie, and their 18-year-old son, Hayden. Hayden is also an accomplished climber, having climbed in Canada, Thailand, Australia, Italy, and throughout the western United States.
Chris Klug
In 1993, Chris was diagnosed with (PSC) Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis, a rare liver disease affecting one in 10,000. After waiting seven years, Chris received a life-saving liver transplant in July 2000. Incredibly, he was back snowboard racing five months later, and now stands as the first organ transplant recipient Olympic Medalist.
A New Liver, A New Life... Since this amazing recovery, Chris is now the spokesperson for Saturn’s National Donor Day. Other honors include lighting the torch and making the keynote address at the 2002 Transplant Games Opening Ceremonies, as well as having The Today Show’s Katie Couric proclaim Chris’ official Olympic “National Donor Day” pin as the hottest pin of the Winter Games.
Career Highlights... Sixteen Year Veteran of the Snowboard World Cup circuit | 2002 Olympic Bronze Medalist Salt Lake City and first ever organ transplant recipient to compete in the Olympics | Eight time US Professional National Champion | Back-to-back 2007 National Snowboarding Champion | 1998 Nagano Olympics 6th Place | 1997 US Open Champion | Four time World Cup Winner | 2002 Olympic Spirit Award Recipient
Chris has also founded The Chris Klug Foundation (www.chrisklug.org), is author of To the Edge and Back, and co-producer of the documentary film, Ride of your Life.
Gerry Lopez
Whole books could be written about Gerry Lopez, suffice it to say Gerry made his reputation at Pipeline, riding it like nobody else before him, or since. From there he went on to a lifelong career in surfing where he is as charismatic, intelligent and intuitive on land as he is in the waves. Always a writer, his recently published book Surf Is Where You Find It, is a collection of stories from a lifetime of surfing.
About Surf Is Where You Find It
Lopez, one of the most revered surfers of his generation, presents a collection of 41 profiles of those who have been influential in the sport — surfing any time, any where, and in any way.
Photo courtesy of Patagonia/ Jeff Johnson
John McBride
Born and raised in Aspen, Colorado, John grew up on skis. He spent 6 years coaching at the Aspen Valley Ski Club and 8 years coaching Aspen Junior Hockey, followed by 11 years with US National Ski Team. In 2007-2008, he was head coach for Team America, helping Bode Miller win the overall World Cup. John was National Coach of the Year in 2003-2004 and 2004-2005, and International Coach of the Year in 2004-2005.
Aron Ralston
Growing up in the Midwest before moving to Colorado with his family in 1987, Aron had little exposure to the wild outdoors. But by the time he set out for a hike in a remote area of Utah’s canyon country in April of 2003, he was already an experienced outdoorsman, mountaineer, and skier. Seven miles into the canyon that day, Aron accidentally dislodged a boulder that crushed and pinned his right hand. After six days of entrapment alone, he freed himself with a cheap multi-tool knife and hiked to a miraculous rescue. Since his accident, Aron has written a best-selling book, spoken to audiences in 200 cities around the world, and helped develop new prosthetic devices that have enabled him to return to his outdoor passions, including his landmark mountaineering project of completing ascents of all 59 of Colorado’s 14,000-foot-high mountains, solo, in winter. Today, Aron lives in Aspen, Colorado where he volunteers with Mountain Rescue Aspen, Wilderness Workshop, MaroonCorps, Aspen Youth Experience, ChallengeAspen, and Paradox Sports.
Kate and Mark Rutherford
Kate Rutherford
Kate started her wild adventure in the rural Alaskan bush chipping ice out of the natural spring that her water came from. She learned to live easily in the outdoors from her parents fishing, hunting and homesteading in the early days. From there she moved south to Vashon Island, Washington, and then to The Colorado College where she finally learned to rock climb. Kate and her dad, Mark Rutherford, have been guiding fly fishing in the back country of western Alaska for the last 10 years, though rock climbing is taking over Kate's time.
Kate’s most exciting and inspiring climbs of late are Freeing the Moonlight Buttress and Half Dome with funny and strong female, Madaleine Sorkin. Kate has also done three ascents of El Capitan, most recently an attempt to free the Freerider route. Cracks are her passion, but adventure keeps her well rounded. Sport routes in Vietnam are just as fun as splitters in the Argentine Andes. Travel, art and work in the environmental community are what climbing is inspiring for her future.
Mark Rutherford
Mark has been fly fishing since 1962 and exploring the most remote waters of Alaska since 1972. He spent 17 years with Alaska Department of Natural Resources as a wildfire manager. He married his college sweetheart, built a log home, then raised a son and daughter in the roadless Cathedral Bluffs region of eastern Alaska — dog sleds and canoes, skis and snowshoes, long nights reading aloud to two children, keeping the water coolers from freezing, and washing all the diapers by hand.
Regarded as one of the finest boat handlers in Alaska, Mark specializes in descents of small wilderness salmon streams and tributaries. He is the host of the annual "Alaska Extreme Fly Fishing Invitational" expedition, a regular speaker at Pacific Northwest Trout Unlimited functions, a member of 1% for the Planet, and an all-around Alaskan renaissance man.
Rush and Peter Sturges
Rush Sturges
Rush Sturges, 23, is known internationally in whitewater kayaking circles as one of the top freestyle/extreme kayakers in the world. He co-founded Young Gun Productions and has produced four films over the last six years (Next Generation, New Reign, Dynasty, and the soon to be released Source). Rush grew up in remote, off-the-grid Forks of Salmon, California, where he began making movies by shooting the guests at his parents’ whitewater kayak school, Otter Bar Lodge. For senior year of high school he attended World Class Kayak Academy and qualified for the World Freestyle Competition held in Graz, Austria. He won this event in the Junior division in 2003. After a year of film school in Vancouver, BC, Rush now travels throughout the world filming new rivers and cultures with an emphasis on extreme drops (waterfalls), difficult whitewater and cultural and environmental considerations. He is the son of Kristy and Peter Sturges and has one sister, Allison Sturges.
Peter Sturges
Peter Sturges is the founder of Otter Bar Lodge Kayak School in remote Northwest California (1981). Passionate about excellence (and life), he is deeply committed to providing the ultimate experience for his clients. Inherent in his philosophy is his desire to be a responsible steward of the land who has resisted growth and runs an "off-the-grid", eco-friendly high-end resort in the rugged and remote river valley of the California Salmon River. In addition, he values his staff and their welfare above all business considerations as he feels "if you take great care of your staff you will be successful". His wife, Kristy, is co-owner and runs much of their operation. He has two children, Rush (23) and Allison (19). Peter served on the local school board for 15 years and has supported numerous grassroots environmental organizations as well as working closely with the US Forest Service. Peter is originally from New England and developed a love for the wild places in the West including the vast deserts and mountain ranges found throughout. At 58 he is an avid sailor, free diver, kayaker, carpenter, all around handyman and backcountry skier who skis 50-75 days during the off-season.
Erik Weihenmayer
A former middle school teacher and wrestling coach, Erik is one of the most exciting and well-known athletes in the world. Despite losing his vision at the age of 13, Erik has become an accomplished mountaineer, paraglider, and skier. He is the only blind man in history to reach the summit of the world's highest peak, Mount Everest, and is one of only 100 people who have climbed the highest mountains on each of the seven continents. In addition, he has scaled El Capitan, a 3,300-foot overhanging rock wall in Yosemite; Polar Circus, a 3,000-foot ice waterfall in the Canadian Rockies; and numerous other difficult climbs worldwide.
Besides being a world-class athlete, Erik is also the author of the book, Touch the Top of the World, published in ten countries and six languages. Erik's second book, The Adversity Advantage: Turning Everyday Struggles Into Everyday Greatness, co-authored with business guru and best-selling author, Dr. Paul Stoltz, was released by Simon and Schuster in January, 2007. Erik also devotes considerable time and energy to charitable work, particularly with the blind; in 2004 he and six of his Everest teammates led a group of blind Tibetan teenagers on a 21,500-foot ascent of the Rongbuk Glacier.
Erik lives in Golden, Colorado, with his wife and two children.
