Think you need a massive film crew and a fleet of support vehicles to make a sick mountain bike film? Think again. In eight days, with only the gear they could carry on their own backs, Joey Schusler and two of his buddies filmed Huayhuash, the most stunning mountain bike film of the year so far.
The three friends from Colorado flew to the Peruvian Andes with their mountain bikes and cameras—a “spur-of-the-moment trip,” according to Joey—aiming to circumnavigate the compact, rugged Cordillera Huayhuash, 20 miles of peaks ranging upward of 22,000 feet. Within six months, the idea of the trip had gone from googling the words “beautiful mountains, South America” to the trio landing in Lima. “None of us had ever gone bikepacking before or gone that deep into the backcountry unsupported,” Joey says.
If what they say is true—that real adventure doesn’t begin until something goes wrong—it wasn’t long before their adventure was quite real. Maybe more so than they would have liked. The sweet, endless miles of singletrack were spiced with a gnarly crash—and ensuing concussion—and gun-pointing locals. All of which was captured on film with the high-altitude peaks glowering in the background.
Joey and fellow filmmaker Thomas Woodson don’t have any formal filmmaking background—just lots of practice and mentorship. Joey helps out with video content at Yeti Cycles in Golden, Colo., and debuted a short film about a mountain biking road trip to Canada last year, The Bus. The duo went to work editing when they got home from Peru, and the resulting flick, which debuted at the 5 Point Film Festival in April, touches a magic balance between looking like the dream trip of a lifetime and something you could do yourself.
We tracked Joey down to find out how he and his friends pulled off what might be the best mountain bike film of the year. This is what he said.
Travel will always come with a hitch—or several. Be ready to roll with them.
“On the bus ride from Lima to Huaraz before we started the trip, we had a camera lens and all of the memory cards for the trip stolen,” Joey says. “I went back to Lima and tracked down some more memory cards in a not-so-legit camera store. Luckily, they worked. From there, everything went fairly smoothly, aside from the few sketchy encounters we had while out on our trek. I had a pretty bad crash and got a concussion, then the next day we had a gun pulled on us. There were plenty of sketchy moments, but that’s what made it all a great adventure.”
Be as prepared as you can be for mechanical issues—and bad conditions.
“We had the basics covered,” he says. “Chain lube, extra chain links, tubes, patch kit, spare derailleur, spare bolts, basic tools, etc. This was enough to keep the bikes rolling, but if something serious were to happen we would have been a bit hosed. We definitely got lucky on the mechanical side of things.
“The toughest part of filming the trip was definitely battling the rain,” Joey says. “It would rain every afternoon and on and off through out the morning. We were in a constant battle with Mother Nature to keep the cameras working. On top of that, there was nowhere to recharge batteries on the loop, so we ended up just having to carry a week’s worth of batteries and memory cards.”
You don’t need a film crew or studio to make a rad film—just the right, light gear.
We used a Sony FS700 as our main camera. It’s incredibly powerful and created some beautiful images. It’s also really light, so it’s perfect for adventures like this. On top of that, we used Canon lenses and had a Canon 5D and 7D as backup video and stills cameras. We had a super-light Gitzo tripod and paid that with the Lite Pro Gear feather crane. Toss in a few GoPros, a bunch of batteries and memory cards, and that’s about it.
Bite off more than you can chew. It will be awesome.
“Looking back, it was definitely a bigger risk than I had envisioned, but it’s probably better that way,” Joey says. To others thinking about trying something like this, he suggests practicing bikepacking a little beforehand—or not. “You’ll learn faster that way!”
“No amount of planning will guarantee a project of this nature coming together in the end,” he says. “The best thing to do is just come up with an idea and make it happen, no matter what it takes.”
The most important thing he learned from the trip?
“Cheesy couscous will fix all your problems after a long day on the bike in the rain.”