Let Me Take You to the Mountain: GoPro’s Andes Adventure

Travis Rice, John Jackson, Chris Davenport and Lynsey Dyer feature in a GoPro journey into the Andes. The film joins the search for terrain with the movement that follows.

A GoPro journey into the Andes

Ridges, light and changes in snow texture help the viewer understand why a line draws attention. A body-mounted view supplies immediacy, while wider shots establish the scale that the closer perspective can lose.

Let Me Take You To The Mountain was the third instalment of GoPro’s HERO3+ Adventure Series. Its premise is a search for a satisfying line in the Andes, which gives the riding a destination and a reason. The journey is part of the attraction: the mountains are somewhere the group has travelled to explore, rather than an interchangeable white background behind a succession of tricks.

Explore more: skiers sharing a frame with wingsuit flight; another GoPro winter-sports feature.

Video: GoPro: Let Me Take You To The Mountain (published by GoPro).

Four athletes in the HERO3+ Adventure Series

The four named athletes keep that journey from becoming anonymous. Rice, Jackson, Davenport and Dyer bring distinct styles to the same production, and their presence makes the title sound like an invitation from a group rather than a tourism slogan. The film also belongs to a particular period in action-camera filmmaking. Its HERO3+ series credit is useful context when comparing the image and perspective with more recent mountain films.

From choosing a line to riding it

Watch the transition between an expansive ridge view and a camera travelling close to the snow. The first helps explain the setting; the second gives a much more immediate impression of speed and surface. Neither perspective tells the whole story by itself. Their combination is what makes this kind of short film satisfying: the landscape establishes the scale of the outing, then the riding brings that scale down to a person moving through it.