Aaron Bryant

Age: 34
Hometown: Anacortes, WA
Role: Director, Editor, 1st Camera Man

Biography

Why did you sign up for the trip?

I had worked with Mike and Bonnie as guides in Washington state, and all of us were shocked when Mike’s cancer diagnosis was announced. We loved these guys a ton, and wanted to encourage them in anyway possible. Only thing we knew to do was pray. Three months into his chemo, Mike gives me a call with a crazy idea to head to Nepal and film a group of young adult cancer survivors doing a 4-6 week first ascent down some unknown river. After two seconds of methodically mulling it over, I told him I was in. Later, after rational thinking set in, we honed our vision to the Owyhee River. Mike and Bonnie are beautiful people inside and out, and that’s why I signed up.

Was it what you expected?

I anticipated hanging out with courageous people on this expedition, but wasn’t really prepared for the depth of courage I experienced in these young adult cancer survivors. I was constantly doing these mental double takes, as we the days went by. We’d learn some new part of their story, and inside I was thinking, “What, no way, that’s unreal.” But it wasn’t.

How did the trip impact you?

I don’t have enough space for any of these questions. It was an honor to see Mike’s inspired leadership on the expedition. It was crazy to know the devastation of his diagnosis, and then to see where it had led since. I was watching him do what he was made to do. It was amazing. Every participant out there left an impression on me. Don’t even get me started on Alston, that guy was riveting. He impacted me big time. My final conversation with him, he had this raspy whisper telling me thanks for getting this thing done. It was an honor Alston.

Most challenging aspect of filming on the river?

When people would flip their boat, or end up swimming accidentally, it was a bit weird sticking a camera in their face, instead of offering them a hand. They were covered, the YD guides were ready to go, but still I had to fight against my guide-instinct.

Their were numerous other challenges like the fact that you have sand, water, and slippery rocks mixing with video equipment. We had to be ultra-intentional with everything. You’d be assembling the camera boom on some precarious rock in the middle of the river, and thinking “if I drop this piece, we’re screwed”.

Honestly our biggest two challenges were budgeting out batteries to last the whole trip and remembering to eat and drink during the day. We were pretty much toast by the end.

Favorite memory in 2 sentences or less:

The moment we found the lost video camera that had sunk to the bottom of the river. Kurtis comes skyrocketing out with it in his hand, and everybody on shore just goes nuts. Awesome.