A Wyoming PBS documentary about American mountain guides will make its world premiere in January at AlpinFilm as part of a special matinee screening.
“A Life Outside: American Mountain Guides” will debut at Center for the Arts on Saturday, Jan. 17, at 2:30 p.m. with director Mat Hames, Wyoming PBS and the mountain guide community in attendance.
The 90-minute film highlights Wyoming’s pioneering mountain guides and the legacy of Paul Petzoldt, a mountaineer who co-founded the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) and the oldest guide service in North America: Exum Mountain Guides.
“I’m deeply grateful,” said the film’s director, Mat Hames. “‘A Life Outside’ is a love letter to guiding, teaching, and mountaineering in the Tetons, and AlpinFilm feels like the perfect place to premiere it.”
With a parallel narrative structure, the documentary weaves the historical context of mountain guiding into a modern story that follows Exum guides on the Grand Teton and NOLS students in the Wind River Range.
Noted Hames, “After two years of making this film, there’s no better feeling than getting to share it first with the people who lived it: the guides of Exum, Jackson Hole Mountain Guides and NOLS.”
The film screening will be followed by a Q&A with Director Mat Hames, Jackson Hole Mountain Guides owner Phil Powers, NOLS Rocky Mountain Assistant Director Andy Blair and Exum Mountain Guide Jess Baker on legacy, mentorship, and the future of outdoor recreation.
“Paul Petzoldt taught us that the outdoors has the power to shape character, leadership, and respect in ways few classrooms ever could,” said Wyoming PBS CEO Joanna Kail. “To have ‘A Life Outside’ premiere at AlpinFilm in Jackson, in the heart of Wyoming’s mountains where it all began, is a profound honor. His pioneering role in the profession of guided mountaineering and instruction, and the values he instilled continue to inspire climbers, guides, and adventurers across Wyoming and around the world.”
“Screening it for the outdoor community at AlpinFilm makes this especially meaningful as it’s their story,” Hames said. “Wyoming is where guiding became a true profession, and this night will be about honoring that history.”