‘100 Summits’ documentary about Camas mountain climber headed to local theaters

Last summer, after mountain climber Andrew Okerlund, a 2021 Camas High School graduate, became the youngest person to complete the challenging Bulger List by summiting Washington state’s 100 highest peaks in a single season, the work of promoting Okerlund’s climbing feats was just beginning for another Camas High alumnus. Zach Hein, who graduated from Camas High seven years before Okerlund in 2014, had developed a nutritious, calorie-rich protein bar to help power his weekend mountaineering adventures during his college years at Montana State University. In 2020, Hein turned his meal bars into a business called Range Meal Bars. When Okerlund reached out to Hein last year looking for corporate sponsors for his Bulger List climbs, Hein was happy to help. “Andrew reached out — just an email looking for sponsorship,” Hein, now a mechanical engineer living in Seattle, recalled. “He was a college student on a shoestring budget and was looking for a food sponsorship.” That conversation would lead to far more than just a donation of Hein’s Range bars. In fact, by the time Okerlund began his quest to summit Washington’s 100 highest peaks in June 2023, he and Hein had decided to make a documentary film detailing Okerlund’s Bulger List climbs. “I can’t remember who brought it up, but it quickly evolved into me helping him bring that together,” Hein said. “That was a first for me, so I reached out to some of the contacts I’d worked with previously.” Soon, photographer and mountain climber Ross James Wallette, had agreed to join Okerlund on several of his summer 2023 climbs and to memorialize the young climber’s journey through photography and videography. Hein also contacted Ridge Runner Films, a film-making company out of Nashville, Tennessee, and Chris Price, an Austin, Texas-based video editor, to turn the raw footage into a documentary movie that could show in local theaters and, eventually, be available online to inspire other mountain climbers and adventurers. “When we first started planning in June or July, we had no plot,” Hein said. “We were predicting what the plot might look like, but we didn’t really know.” The story wouldn’t unfold until Okerlund was actually on the mountains, trying to set a new record as the youngest climber, racing against the clock to complete all 100 climbs before his fall semester at school and contending with natural challenges such as wildfires and rock slides. Hein decided to join Okerlund on a few of his climbs, and said he was impressed by the younger man’s enthusiasm and positive outlook. “All of this was new to me,” Hein said. “But Andrew’s confidence and optimism definitely led to success on those peaks.” Hein said one of the themes that emerged in the documentary was the question of whether Okerlund would be able to complete his quest after a wildfire threatened to shut down his late-summer climbs. The Sourdough Fire, which started burning July 29, 2023, in Whatcom County, Washington, and quickly consumed more than 6,300 acres, worried the climbers and documentary makers, Hein said. “When the Sourdough Fire started, if and how Andrew would be able to finish was a big question mark,” Hein said. The film also focuses on the friendship that forms between Okerlund and Wallette, who barely knew each other when they decided to climb Washington’s highest peaks together. “You also see how Andrew changes,” Hein said. “He goes into it so young and as a relatively new climber, but after some close calls, you can see he is growing, building his judgment as a young adult.” The documentary, “100 Summits: Bulgers in a Season,” will have three in-person screenings in June, beginning with its premiere at the Liberty Theatre in downtown Camas on Saturday, June 1. The entire documentary crew will be at the Camas premiere, Hein said, and will stay afterward for a question-and-answer session. The doors open at 7:30 p.m. and the show starts at 8 p.m. Tickets will cost $7 and will be available online at camasliberty.com and at the door. Other shows will take place at 2 p.m. Sunday, June 2, at the Varsity Theater in Seattle; and at 2 p.m. Sunday, June 9, at the Mission Theater in northwest Portland. The documentary also will be available online for free after June 14. For more information about the documentary, or to find links to purchase tickets for an in-person screening of “100 Summits,” visit rangemealbar.com/100summits. To watch a trailer for the “100 Summits” documentary, visit youtube.com/watch?v=i9TbxWI2WGo

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