Sweetgrass Productions | Film. Mountains. Culture. Soul.

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When Google Earth has sex with optimism, some frea

When Google Earth has sex with optimism, some freaky shit happens. Deemed a "retirement party" for a dude who's outdoor rap sheet is a phone book, the journey began with a plane scout last summer, and concluded with said dude, cresting 60, barfing on top of the ridge. The dream was simple-- follow an uninterrupted ridge from the Bugaboos west all the way to the Four Squatters. 50km and 17,000ft of vertical off trail scrambling, glaciation, bergschrunds, shit rock, mud, shale, sidehilling, sand, and finally, a 2500m vertical descent through alder, deadfall, bears. Casual Sunday.

30 hours later with an unplanned 3 hour shiver fest bivy at treeline, we arrived at our car at Duncan Lake, not sure whether beer, or coke, or water was best to wash us clean of the misery. Certainly, most definitely, 100%, not destined to become a classic route, but a memory a few days after the fact, and likely a good memory by the end of the week. Pics by Nelson Rocha and Nick @randy.richmond @patagonia

Alberto Pugno, a fisherman in the Italian Alps, is

Alberto Pugno, a fisherman in the Italian Alps, is the last known practitioner of an ancient style of flyfishing remarkable for its pure simplicity.
Watch the film through the link in bio. ——- Films, like yearbooks, serve as markers of time. We spend large portions of our lives, sequestered in dark edit caves, wrestling with their every detail, and getting to know the characters better than they know themselves.
IL PESCATORE COMPLETO will forever bring me back to the summer of '19, where I was lifted off my feet by the romance of Chopin, the pastoral beauty of Alagna, and the masterful simplicity of Arturo Pugno.
It was a rare occasion when I got to the end of the process and thought "well that doesn't totally suck." Huge thanks to Yvon Chouinard, all at @patagonia, and @alxlwthr for trusting us to shape the story into what you see today, an ode to Italianness, fish whispering, and simplicity. Bacioni 😘

Here at SGP we aren’t your typical team sports f

Here at SGP we aren’t your typical team sports fans, but when we got a call from @foxsports to shoot a lead in spot for a little game called THE SUPERBOWL it was hard to say no. Tune in at 6pm EST to see ‘Before They Were Here’ (we’ll believe it when we see it!). Cinematography by @mikaljamesbrown and @mikeparenteau with camera wrangling by @the_poacher and @snackyz shoot wrangling by @vincent_paolella

It’s a hairs-on-the-back-of-the-neck kind of mom

It’s a hairs-on-the-back-of-the-neck kind of moment, joining a small, but growing, number of land protections in Canada that recognize and prioritize the rights of the First Nations. The Ktunaxa, the federal government, and @wildinsight just announced the official officialness of the Qat’muk protected area to permanently keep Jumbo Wild forever. I couldn’t have dreamed of this outcome for the Ktunaxa, Wildsight, and the citizens of the east and west Kootenays when we began our work on the film some years ago. Huge congratulations for the many, many people who believed in fighting against the odds, for several decades, to protect their backyard and ancestral home. 📷: @grove_garrett @patagonia

If you ask Yvon Chouinard who he looks up to, he'l

If you ask Yvon Chouinard who he looks up to, he'll tell you Arturo Pugno, the subject of our latest, Il Pescatore Completo [The Complete Fisherman].
Pugno's been plying the rivers of Northern Italy for 75+ years with nothing more than a 16 foot long Hazelnut branch and fishing line made of braided
white stallion tail hairs. His tiny flies are made exclusively with wild bird feathers, and his understanding of the minute differences in feathers plucked from the neck, the breast, or the tail stems from a lifetime of watching these creatures in the wild. In Yvon's words, you cannot out fish him with modern equipment. And by stripping away everything down to the
most minimal, Pugno achieves perfection.
Sandwiched somewhere between beer clinks and friendships forged on international dancefloors, we found ourselves onstage last week World Premiering the thing at the @banffmountainfestival .
It's a YC original, and another cool collaboration with Ohio’s finest @alxlwthr and the even finer folks @patagonia, 18+ minutes coming your way soon.
Meantime, some real romance in the images above to tide you over until the moving picture makes it to your backyard. #valsesia #valsesiana #aosta

It’s safe to say that when we wrapped up the cab

It’s safe to say that when we wrapped up the cables and packed our lights up from our last LED adventure, we didn’t expect we’d ever ourselves back under the stars again with lights, suits, and skis.
Lo and behold, we got the opportunity to team up with @chrisbenchetler, director @tylerjhamlet and the @gratefuldead to put all we’ve learned as well as a few new tricks towards lighting it up again for a new visual journey.
Huge props to our talented crew @shanetreat @basil_wrathbone @colinarndt @jahrig and @mikaljamesbrown for pulling this one off with a super star cast @jeremyjones @rob_machado @kimmyfasani @myshellparker, wild man @travelindan and @chrisbenchetler himself 💥

Here’s a taste of what’s coming at you later this fall!

Sometimes life leads to the uncanny, or unexpected

Sometimes life leads to the uncanny, or unexpected, and you have to pinch yourself to make sure it’s not just a dream. Real life office views from #fireonthemountain 📸 @colinarndt

Last winter we got a ring from @chrisbenchetler w

Last winter we got a ring from @chrisbenchetler who was dreaming up a psychedelic journey in partnership with @gratefuldead. As we’ve had our fair share of rodeos when it comes to lighting things up at night (specifically very large things such as mountains), we knew it was a not to be missed opportunity for creativity and pushing our techniques to new limits to bring Chris’s vision to life with an all star lineup including @rob_machado @kimmyfasani @jeremyjones @travelindan @myshellparker and Benchetler himself. Keep your eyes out for a Fire on The Mountain trailer dropping mañana!
📸 @petermorning

Here’s another from the oven, our latest piece o

Here’s another from the oven, our latest piece on @dash_longe and skiing his SLC backyard: Stones Throw. Full length dropping 10.8.19 in collaboration with @dpsskis .

While tromping around the Swiss Alps last week, co

While tromping around the Swiss Alps last week, conversation inevitably circled around the fleeting nature of the ice. Scientists note that within 30 years, all but the most major glaciers of the alps will be gone. Within that ice are stories that date back tens of thousands to millions of years. Our childrens generation will see these effects, directly, along with the much more dire ones on the food chain, sea levels, and human migration. (to name a few!) The irony of writing a post about flying in an airplane to a melting glacier isn't lost on us-- we're keenly aware that we actively contribute to climate change. In other ways we aim to reduce our impact, change our habits, and engage the conversation of how to make larger, systemic changes to our energy chain and consumption. Where also responsible for our voice-- what we choose to promote, discuss, and put to market as the latest, greatest in our films and photos. And if that's travel, then, again, we're indirectly playing a part. What are you doing? What are we doing? What do you think?

Today, the focus is on listening to the next generation. It's the youth climate strike, and we'll be marching along side them in Nelson, BC and Salt Lake City, UT, hearing what they envision for the future.

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