Business Insider's chief video correspondent Graham Flanagan and senior producer Jake Gabbard take you behind the scenes of the latest "Boot Camp" story: covering the US Army Mountain Warfare School in the rugged mountains of Vermont.
Category
🤖
TechTranscript
00:00I am harnessed in with just a tether and I'm dangling on the side of this cliff
00:07filming them above me and it's a really cool low-angle shot but you know as I
00:14was going down to get the shot I dropped the camera in four feet of snow so I
00:18have to pull it out and then these the guys are coming that's why I'm quickly
00:21trying to clean the lens so then I pull out the GoPro and I'm trying to film
00:24with the GoPro to at least get the shot.
00:27I'm Graham Flanagan, Chief Video Correspondent for Business Insider. I'm
00:31the creator and showrunner of Boot Camp which goes inside military and law
00:36enforcement training programs. I'm here with Jake Gabbard, senior producer for
00:42Boot Camp. You've worked on the show since what like 2021? Yeah it's been
00:46almost four years yeah. We're here to talk about Jake's new piece. It's a
00:51feature-length project that goes inside the US Army's Mountain Warfare School in
00:58Jericho, Vermont and it's it's a feature film. It's the third feature-length thing
01:03we've done for Business Insider for Boot Camp and it's got a really cool title to
01:08Gods of the Hills. So I want to say this before we continue talking about this
01:15film that if you have not watched it yet watch it first because we're gonna get
01:20into it and go behind the scenes and get into the nitty-gritty of what you're
01:25seeing. So spoilers ahead, watch the video, you won't be sorry and then pick up
01:32with us after. But Jake, congratulations on the piece. Thank you. It's awesome. This
01:38was a big, big undertaking. Tell us a little bit about the story. Give us like
01:45the elevator pitch and then we'll talk about how you made it. Yeah so I've been
01:51pushing this story for about three years now. I first reached out to them when I
01:55first joined the team and back then you know we were still focusing on kind of
02:00the basic training stories and just seeing people in obstacle courses and
02:04meeting these newly enlisted soldiers. But you know I personally really like
02:09the outdoors a lot and I'm like this is the kind of story I want to tell and at
02:13first you know we were trying to figure out you know what's the story here and
02:16it was a little ahead of where we were going and then as our show
02:20evolved like it's time to go and I was gonna go last year and do it and I
02:24reached out to them and they said there's no snow here you don't want to
02:27come it's just gray and gross. So I had to wait a whole year to come back and I
02:31called them up and they were ready to have me and I checked before I got there
02:34and they're like oh there's plenty of snow don't worry there's gonna be plenty
02:37of snow. So I you know drove up there and spent 14 days with them from start to
02:43finish of the school because often we will drop in on trainings we don't have
02:46the opportunity to really see as they arrive see the same people leave and
02:51everything in between. So this was just a great opportunity to just really see a
02:56full training and document it. So tell me what are they doing at the Army Mountain
03:02Warfare School what is the training what is it for? Well they are doing the same
03:06thing essentially that they have done since 1983 when the school opened. They
03:11are training soldiers and honestly service members from across the branches.
03:15They there were Air Force people there they have international students that
03:18come in and what they are doing is they are training basically trained military
03:23Mountaineers. There's also an advanced course where they go a step further but
03:28essentially what they are doing is they are teaching soldiers how how to
03:32traverse mountains safely survive in cold climates in the winter but
03:38essentially their their job is to teach soldiers how to escort platoons and
03:43troops through the mountains safely to get them to where the objective is.
03:47Fighting often doesn't happen in the mountains because logistically that's
03:52not the best it's more of a defensible area but you have to get through
03:56mountains even as recently as a like Afghanistan a lot of mountainous regions
04:00so these Mountaineers their job is to help escort troops on foot through these
04:05places safely and the idea is that no one they're escorting is trained they
04:09are the trained ones and they can they're the person from their unit that
04:13can do that. So this schoolhouse this training area tell me where it is
04:17located. So it's in a town called Jericho Vermont and it is a tiny town but it's
04:23out kind of in the middle of nowhere and it's just just absolutely beautiful. So
04:29like you said before oftentimes when we cover training programs that are like a
04:34lot longer like Marine boot camp is 13 weeks some schools we go to are like an
04:40amount of months or even like 21 days but we normally we can't invest that
04:47time and resources to like be there for you know 13 weeks or whatever or six
04:52months so we'll often just like bounce around to the different companies and
04:57different stages of training and then try to like weave the story together
05:00telling you know those different with those different sort of chapters that we
05:04weave together but in this case like I did with jungle school in Hawaii sort of
05:10a similar concept where you were there for the full cycle so how long were you
05:16there for how long did this training cycle last because you're there from day
05:21one until graduation. Yeah so it is 14 days and I mean it's jam-packed but yeah
05:27I arrived I think the students also arrived around 1 p.m. on a Saturday and
05:31then graduation was 14 days later on a Friday afternoon and as soon as
05:38graduation is over within 10 minutes the students were in their civilian clothes
05:42on the bus heading to the airport the school wanted them out of there they
05:45wanted to go home it I've never seen it cleaned up that quick and it made it
05:49great for me because I got to go home that night too. So was this the longest
05:52shoot you've ever done like for one story? Yeah this is absolutely the
05:56longest shoot I've ever done I've done long trips but nothing quite like this
06:02where I was in it the whole time you're you know I'm checking my phone to make
06:07sure students didn't get dropped without me knowing and I'm texting the guys at
06:11the school about what is happening that night that I'm missing or what how to
06:15prepare for the next day so I was in it you know from the time I got there to
06:20the time I left which you know was exhausting but kind of exhilarating at
06:24the same time. I know that they run the mountain school in the winter and in
06:30the summer obviously you were there in the winter that you did this in like
06:34early February right so you watch the video if you've seen the video the
06:39conditions are very very difficult like you said there was a ton of snow it was
06:45very windy on top of just the terrain that you guys are dealing with I mean
06:49part of what they learn to do is just how to walk in the snow and walk up
06:54these steep grades like just getting around in this so the soldiers that are
06:59the students we're all learning this but you civilian Jake you had to go with
07:06them every step of the way to the extent that you could and you're also carrying
07:12a bunch of camera gear like take me I want to know like first of all like what
07:16gear did you have for this shoot camera gear wise I had like the normal rig I
07:21usually do for boot camp which is very mobile I have a mirrorless camera that's
07:26just essentially a DSLR and I put it on a monopod it's got a little microphone
07:31on top and that's pretty much it I just run around with it everywhere I go I
07:34also usually will carry some GoPros and I had to utilize some GoPros on this
07:38shoot I even had to utilize my iPhone a couple of times because my other my main
07:43camera was covered in snow or frozen so okay so yeah tell me about that because
07:47there's there's multiple scenes in this where the snow is just unrelenting so
07:52tell me about that impact on your gear during the shoot and how you sort of
07:56mitigated like full damage and failure one is I would check where the wind was
08:00blowing and I would stand against the wind and point the camera with the wind
08:05so that way the snow is not coming to the lens as best as possible yeah which
08:09obviously when you're out in the woods or whatever or on a cliffside it's hard
08:12to do but I was trying to be like very conscious of where the snow was gonna
08:16hit the camera but then a certain point like on day four when we were filming at
08:20Castle Rock it was a blizzard or the land navigation on day six it was a
08:25blizzard it was whiteout conditions there's only so much you can do and
08:28every probably 30 seconds there was a half inch of snow getting on my
08:31microphone which is messing up the audio and just covering the camera so I was
08:36doing what I could and then in any moments where I wasn't using the camera
08:40I learned this technique from the soldiers there I think they call it
08:44happy turtle sad turtle where they take their helmet in the snow and if their
08:49helmet is upside down face you know with the kind of the lining facing up they
08:54call that sad turtle because it's like a turtle on its back and that you're
08:57getting snow in your helmet it's gonna get wet it's not good for survival so
09:00they teach the soldiers to put their helmet you know with the top going up
09:05right so I started doing that cuz I had helmet as well right and I would just
09:07put my helmet on top of the camera to protect it from the snow but your camera
09:11survived right your microphone survived yeah I mean we've been filming boot camp
09:15for four years this is the only camera I use because it's it's tough it's been in
09:19airplanes it's been in the desert it's been in four feet of snow and you know I
09:24dropped this camera in the snow a lot because I was falling and tripping and
09:29there's nothing you can do and it held up great and what which camera and lens
09:33I use the Panasonic Lumix s1h it's it's smaller it's compact but it's it's it's
09:39it's a workhorse and I love it for these boot camp stories because it's light and
09:44we're filming for 12 hours in crazy conditions on the side of mountains so I
09:48had to be able to carry this or sometimes I'd have to throw it in a
09:50backpack cuz I was getting on a snowmobile that's the camera I use and
09:53then I just have a little Minfrotto monopod and I would just throw it on
09:55there and I think it you know it does the job and did you just stick with one
09:59lens or did you have like a series like multiple lenses I did have multiple
10:03lenses I mainly only ever used the 24 to 105 lens that's kind of that's the
10:08bread and butter for boot camp I think it gets a little depth of field but also
10:12it's versatile but then if the you know if the conditions allow I like to throw
10:17on the 75 to 200 millimeter kind of telephoto lens and the scene where
10:22they're doing the ice wall climbing yeah I threw that on there you can you can
10:26tell the the colors and everything are so much crisper it's it just really gets
10:30some great depth of field but often when you're running gunning and you're
10:33talking to someone one second about what they're eating in an MRE versus filming
10:37them rappelling down a mountain the 24 to 105 lens is is the is a good option
10:42because you can get a little bit everything with that so that's your gear
10:45and it's amazing that it survived these conditions I mean if you watch some of
10:50the footage where the wind is just blasting the snows coming down not even
10:54considering what you're having to navigate on your own two feet to stay
10:59upright and keep the gear under control I mean it's it's just amazing that you
11:04that you got everything out of there in one piece at least that you've told me
11:08about but what about based on the the very cold and difficult conditions tell
11:14me about like what you were wearing like what clothes did you bring and then how
11:18did that evolve once like reality set in I'm guessing you know you had to kind of
11:23upgrade yeah I definitely had a certain amount of hubris when approaching this
11:28shoot I'm super outdoorsy I go hiking all the time and I made that very clear
11:33to my contacts at the school I'd like oh I have hiking boots and I bought a
11:38couple pair of long underwear and I had chillies yeah I had that I bought a 30
11:44pack of hand warmers and I had like a Patagonia coat and I show up and
11:48actually here's a picture of me wearing that on one of the first days and it you
11:53know I thought that that's what I was gonna wear the whole time and then very
11:55quickly they confronted me like hey this isn't gonna work you're not gonna be
12:00able to film this whole school if that's all you have and at first I was kind of
12:03offended cuz I know I got this and then I started going up hills a little bit
12:08not not mountains just hills that were just steep and I kept falling and it
12:12just wasn't working so they they hooked me up with the entire the same gear that
12:16all the soldiers get I got the full equic system the the extended cold
12:20leather clothing system and I had crampons I had trekking poles I had
12:27balaclavas I had the boots that the to the two-layer boots I had all of that
12:33there was no way that this shoot would have happened if I was wearing my
12:36civilian things because that those clothes got soaked within five minutes
12:41and then I would have gotten hypothermia and had to call it so the the military
12:45gear got me through that shoot which was cool too because you know like I you
12:49know playing soldier a little bit yeah I learned that the hard way on the
12:54jungle school shoot like I'm like oh I'm in Hawaii and I literally was wearing
12:58like khakis and Merrill's and like a polo and like a Patagonia shell and all
13:05of that got thrown away at the end of the shoot and you live and learn yeah
13:09now I've upgraded a little bit I've more tactical wardrobe for these shoots but
13:13you've got your gear set up you're very mobile it survived they upgrade you for
13:19the clothes you really need to survive out there which is what the soldiers
13:22have and but then there are some pictures that you that you have that we
13:28can show that you you had to repel down steep graded grades and and I guess you
13:37could say rock faces right to get to where you needed to be there wasn't like
13:41a staircase that you could just take around for the camera guy right like
13:45tell me a little bit about that experience when did you have to like
13:48actually repel and you know you had to secure your gear and just you know to
13:52make sure it didn't break while you were getting from one place to the other it's
13:55important to reiterate every shot you see throughout that training I had to
13:58get and I have filmed on some mountains before for other shows and things like
14:03that and typically there's like a little hiking trail that takes you to a
14:06viewpoint that's kind of what I had anticipated for this that the you know
14:11the people that were kind of escorting me around would take me to these you
14:15know these viewpoints that's not how this works and I learned that like on
14:19day two that if I wanted to get the shots that I was sent here to go get and
14:22tell the story I had to get I had to do the same thing that these guys were
14:24doing with the exception of like the ice the ice wall there was like a way around
14:28it but so yeah I had to learn how to repel I had to learn how to use an
14:32ascender on the fixed ropes and if not like I wouldn't have gotten the shots so
14:39yeah it was after the students would learn something and they were kind of
14:45wrapped for the day and they're going back to the schoolhouse and rocking back
14:48which would take about an hour I would stay with the instructors and they would
14:52rig me up and teach me how to do it and they would practice like how
14:57comfortable I was walking to the edge of these cliffs and honestly the first time
15:01I did it it was freaky you know because I'm kind of just dangling there like a
15:05booger trying to like get these shots but at the same time I'm a little afraid
15:08of heights but then as it progressed I was learning more and more skills and
15:12then I got more confident and then yeah on like day 12 in order to get where I
15:16needed to get safely I had to ascend up using the ascender and then I had to go
15:20down with the repel and honestly that was maybe one of my favorite moments of
15:24the whole school was getting to repel that was fun it was genuinely fun it's
15:28you know it's a really cool feeling just to kind of slide down there really
15:32smooth I was doing oh I mean I was not doing the same stuff the soldiers were
15:35doing but I had to do some of the skill set and you know I had escorts that were
15:40helping me do it safely and I had like security ropes that the soldiers weren't
15:46using in case something happened you know I mean you were definitely doing
15:50things that you didn't have to do on like your Air Force boot camp shoot or
15:54your Space Force shoot or some of your old food shoots that you used to do yeah
16:00I love adventure shooting that's my favorite thing to do here is to be out
16:04in the field and put myself in these scenarios but sometimes there are things
16:08that kind of push you and like you know if I'm gonna get this shot if I'm gonna
16:11tell this story I have to get in front of the soldiers I can't be behind them
16:15because then it's just a video of their butts so I'm I have to get up and like
16:19on day four when they're ascending Castle Rock and coming back down there's
16:23a pathway for them I can't stand in the pathway so I had to climb up into the
16:27middle of this cliffside and find and like dig a hole that I could stand in
16:31safely and move back and forth to get all the shots I needed the the the film
16:36is like so it's it's it's about an hour long and it spans 14 days but it moves
16:41at a really nice pace so it's just like shot after shot after shot shot you for
16:46kind of forget or don't even realize like what's going into the shot because
16:50you're just like watching the story every shot tells a story or as part of
16:53whatever scene we're watching progressing the story along but like can
16:57you name like any particular shots in the piece where like the audience I
17:03should know what was going into getting this shot in terms of like where you
17:07were positioned with the camera or what you had to do to to make sure you were
17:11safe or the gear was safe yeah there's one in particular that I can think of
17:16that I actually have a behind-the-scenes video that one of the guys shot here I
17:20am harnessed in with just a tether and I'm dangling on the side of this cliff
17:25filming them above me and it's a really cool low-angle shot but you know as I
17:31was going down to get the shot I dropped the camera in four feet of snow so I have
17:35to pull it out and then these the guys are coming and so I I'm quickly trying
17:39to clean the land so then I pull out the GoPro and I'm trying to film with the
17:42GoPro to at least get the shot but there are a lot of like on the culminating
17:45event at the notch there's so many shots like that that also I'd have to hold my
17:49breath a lot of the time because I was so exhausted and panting and like I get
17:54there just in time and then here they come so I would hold my breath and try
17:57not to shake the camera because I'm exhausted and like I'm I got the you
18:00know the tunnel vision in my eyes but I'm like you know the camera is what
18:03it's doing it's when you when you approach a story and you get the
18:06opportunity and the access to cover like a full cycle of training it affords us
18:11the opportunity that we don't often get in those other stories where we're kind
18:14of bouncing around to like really get to know people and it for in the context of
18:20your story like you get characters right that you can like follow all the
18:24way through you know when we're bouncing around like marine boot camp or
18:29something like we might only be at a site for a few hours covering like an
18:33obstacle course and like within that obstacle course it's like okay let's
18:37stick with this one person here their story have a little like mini character
18:41arc within that little chapter and then that's it but in this case like you get
18:45to meet these people on day one and I you know that is one of my favorite
18:50parts of this this film is that we get to know these people and individually
18:58and sort of get attached to them and develop like you know certain feelings
19:02or opinions about them I want to ask you about one specific one that I think many
19:06will agree is like the standout character in this piece and that's
19:11honeycutt who is honeycutt so staff sergeant Nicholas honeycutt he's one of
19:16those guys and like you mentioned a big part of our job is finding these people
19:19finding these characters so day one they're checking in none of them know
19:23each other and they're you know get going up to their barracks and they're
19:26nervous it's first day of school they're nervous I'm up there in in the barracks
19:30with them and I'm kind of filming asking some questions but really I'm kind of
19:33scoping out who are the people I'm gonna spend the next 14 days covering for this
19:37story who's captivating who's interesting who do I want to follow
19:40sometimes people are you know a little bit quieter and don't make good
19:43characters I'm there and within five seconds in the barracks I hear him
19:47cracking jokes about how cold it is there's a shot a little scene in that
19:52day one where he's joking around about being from Texas and you know it gets
19:57cold there but not you know not as cold as it is here and you know I could he
20:01was already talking about how cold it was I'm coming from El Paso and I was
20:10like this guy I want to I want to talk to more so I just started asking him
20:14questions and then every single day I would kind of check in with him he's
20:18always right here in my face and you know got to know him really well and I
20:22just you know I loved getting to follow him around as he experienced it because
20:27he was very vocal about how cold it was and how you know hard it was but you
20:32know he had a big heart and great guy to follow when I got there I you know I you
20:37know when I worked at the school I said you know I want to be able to follow
20:39characters so there are three different squads and they every single person that
20:45was placed in the second squad had been asked if they were comfortable being
20:48featured in this documentary which is great that's a dream for me so there
20:53were a couple of people who were special ops that I don't even think
20:58we're going by their actual names I wasn't allowed to film them
21:00understandably so everyone that was placed in the second squad they were
21:04totally comfortable being on camera and there were there are many times we'll
21:07get to this in a little bit with you know the test taking where it gets
21:11intense and they're having moments of real you know stress and real you know
21:18worry and I would ask I'm like hey is it okay if I keep filming you like I I
21:22need this for the story like I want to film this but I also don't want to
21:27influence your time here and and honeycutt especially was super gracious
21:32the whole time in schools like this like at jungle school if you get accepted and
21:39you start the course like you're not guaranteed to graduate like obviously
21:43there's always the risk of like illness or injury that can get you out of the
21:45course but along the way in between day one and graduation they're like these
21:50critical tests where if you fail the test even if you're only like halfway
21:56through the course they're like gotta you gotta go so in my experience at
22:00jungle school it's like there are all these tests in the first few days and
22:03you're following characters around it you know you you're hoping they'll make
22:08it all the way through to the end and you'll have that postgame interview like
22:11hey aren't you excited but the reality is anybody can fail at any given time so
22:15honeycutt I mean you're with him he's this lovable guy very dynamic funny you
22:23know he's picked to be the squad leader he's a staff sergeant so very capable guy
22:28but then they have this critical test that they say at the beginning of the
22:32video and I love when you do that because I've watched the piece a lot but
22:35they say the knot test is what gets people the knot test is about one week
22:39in on the course we see that there's generally a 15% attrition rate and of
22:44the 15% the vast majority are from the knot test so tell me what happened with
22:49honeycutt and that knot test yeah well first to jump into it you know failure
22:54is necessary because there's a standard here and as a civilian as a citizen you
22:59know of the u.s. I want the guys they're graduating to be ready to go so like
23:05they weren't messing around with that standard that's why this knot test is so
23:09crucial because that knot test determines right in the halfway point it
23:13determines who can carry on and finish this training and who's not safe or you
23:19know who can we not put on these cliff faces so it's really important and you
23:24don't know who's gonna you know do well you can't kind of an I have an idea but
23:28honeycutt was so confident the whole time I was there he just carried himself
23:31with this confidence but you could see it at the beginning of the scene and I
23:35think there's a shot that we can yeah there's a shot here you can see like
23:39honeycutt is fiddling his fingers right here he's got this like little zip tie
23:43that he's running through his fingers and he's noticeably nervous and you
23:48could really just feel it and something changed he was not shabby that morning
23:51to me he was in his head and then he approaches the instructor at the front
23:56of the line and he's just like I'm as ready as I'll ever fucking be yeah he
23:59says that in like a sarcastic way yeah and it's you get a sense something's a
24:04little off and I feel like he's already he's already given up I'm gonna follow
24:08him through the test and just kind of see what happens he'll pass and then
24:11I'll go cover some other people just to kind of give some context here with the
24:15knot test they take it once if they fail they go to 20 minutes of retraining and
24:18then they get another opportunity to take the test again and if they feel
24:21that second time then they're done and they're kicked out of the school and we
24:24go and I'm noticing real quick he's not getting a lot of the knots there are
24:28certain purposes which they have to name the purpose of each not purpose of the
24:32butterfly is to prepare rope for carry there are certain purposes that he's
24:38just not even saying he's he's so in his head it's not working and then he
24:42gets that score and he had I think 172 out of 240 he was way off he was way off
24:48and that was happening a lot there were a lot of students that on that first
24:51time we're getting around that range yeah honey cut yeah he and they went to
24:55retraining and you know he was making jokes because you could tell he was
24:58nervous and I think that that's how he was handling it he was training and
25:02trained next to a Sierra who was another character that you know was great to
25:06cover and then he went back and did it again and it was kind of a euphoric
25:11second test he was just killing it and I think that comes across like he's just
25:16hitting all these knots all these purposes and I you know I take a sigh
25:19of relief you know he's got this he's he's clearing it up and then with like
25:22the last four knots he just completely got in his head again and just choked
25:27and he ended up failing by four points and and that's it like there's no if
25:32stands or but so he packed his stuff up and within an hour was driven to the
25:36airport and was done with the school when you're filming honey cut taking the
25:41knot test even though he was like totally cool with you filming him and
25:45like open and gracious and like you described do you think that you being
25:51focused on him and like right up in his face like in any way negatively impacted
25:55his performance in the knot test that was my fear definitely was my fear so
26:00there was a moment in retraining when we were in that little side room where
26:05the instructor doing the retraining asked me like hey will you not film him
26:08during the second test and I understood the request but I'm like I kind of have
26:14to I need to see it and then honey cut jumped in and he's like no Jake's got it
26:18and he's took up for me and he's like he's like I'm bad at these knots that's
26:23not Jake's problem Jake you can film whatever there's a moment where you
26:26follow him he like goes into the weight room to sort of decompress and you know
26:32he he's just a different person than he was with all of his swagger and good
26:39humor and he still has a sense of humor to an extent but I mean I wanted to ask
26:47you what that's like for you because I mean he left Texas to go on this trip
26:51and everybody knows and is everybody in his unit knows he's going to mountain
26:54school and it's like you got to come back you know having graduated and you
26:58don't want to go back having been kicked out on you know at the knot test like
27:03what was it like for you to be with him one-on-one clearly he's upset but you're
27:12doing your job to show what happened how it all played out and you you're
27:17obviously invested in you've gotten to know him and what's that like for you in
27:23terms of like balancing what's what you're feeling with like doing your job
27:26and how did how did that work it was kind of devastating I you know I was
27:34imagining every you know night when I go back to the hotel and I was writing
27:37kind of the script in the outline I was imagining him at the graduation and you
27:41know seeing the change from him on day one to day 14 that was in my head I was
27:45already writing it and you know I knew I knew he was going to graduate so all the
27:48sudden when that instructors like you know that's 236 out of 240 unfortunately
27:54that's not enough the look on Honeycutt's face in that scene where you
27:58can just see the you know his stomach just drops mine did too I'm sitting
28:03there holding the camera and like my stomach dropped I'm like oh no like one
28:07I don't say goodbye to him because I've been hanging out with him every day but
28:09to like I wanted to see him succeed so bad and I just really understood how
28:14brutal this you know these schools can be and like it's it's important but also
28:19I was there to do a job and I had to tell a story so I made sure I continued
28:23filming and I kind of I gave him a couple of minutes to gather himself and
28:28then I kind of started to hunting around to see where he was and I caught him
28:31turning his gear in and he was still kind of shaken up from it so I didn't
28:35push him too hard and then he went to kind of where where he liked to spend a
28:39lot of time which was the gym and he was in there just kind of blowing off some
28:41steam and I was like hey do you mind if I just chat with you a little bit and
28:45he's sure and then he was feeling much better already he says he's gonna go
28:49home and cook a steak and or a chicken thigh and drink a beer just for you have
28:55you checked in with honeycutt since you filmed did he drink that beer I I spoke
29:00to him yesterday actually just to kind of follow up and see how he's been doing
29:04I assume he drank the beer I didn't get that answer from him I had a beer for
29:08him that like that night I remember I went to a brewery and had one just for
29:12him but yeah no I he's doing great he said that he's been taking what he you
29:17know what he was able to learn in that first week and he brought it back to his
29:20unit and Ford Bliss and has been teaching them some of the knots and
29:23stuff and I think he plans on coming back and doing the summer course where
29:28it's not cold there's a moment later in the piece well after the knot test where
29:32they're being tested on like lowering techniques and the rope systems that you
29:38have to employ successfully to make those safe and there's an instance where
29:43a student named Garuri is being tested in time don't getting this ropes us rope
29:49system ready five four three two one time stop what you're doing
30:09so your mule isn't cinched down either so you can see that there's there would
30:15be a lot of play in that okay so we were told yesterday by sergeant George that
30:23we would have those tied in so I think that if I had a little bit more time I
30:31wouldn't have freaked out as much because I messed up on my meal or not on
30:35the mule but tying that initial for sick and lost time and then free and
30:42then as you were counting down rush through according to sergeant George
30:46yesterday during the study hall he told everybody those would be pre tied for us
30:49we wouldn't be timed on them so you think that this thing the green yes all
30:53that fucking cause master I think that the time on that I mean like I wouldn't
30:58have fumbled fuck my way through it because I literally heard you going I
31:02don't know what I'm doing I did say that because I was frustrated trying to
31:06get that initial person not tied the 12 minutes is designed I understand for
31:14that so whether you were told that or not it's kind of irregardless okay
31:19business just falling apart or what it's okay man well pack it up all right it's
31:27like I'm out tell me a little bit about that moment what that was like I mean
31:31you could cut the tension with a knife it's had to be awkward it was extremely
31:36awkward and the story about that is pretty crazy in itself I was filming our
31:40loadout episode which is our sister series where we do like a gear thing I
31:45was filming it that morning and then I had to race to where they were doing
31:49that test and they just dropped me off in a suspect they just dropped me off at
31:53the bottom of this hill and all the other soldiers are just kind of hanging
31:57out eating MREs and I'm like hey where's the test happening and they so it's up
32:01there so I'm sprinting with all my gear is like I have to cover this I have to
32:05see this and because you know if there's tests where people are getting sent home
32:07I have to see it and I get up there and there's only like six students taking
32:10the test and one of them happened to be Greary who I had talked to a lot he's
32:15one of my main characters and honestly after honeycut I saw him being kind of a
32:19main character so I wanted to you know like really feature him and I get up
32:22there I start filming and he is freaking out and you hear him just cussing under
32:26his breath and I have to film this but I feel horrible so I did stand further
32:30back than I did for the not test but I don't want to mess up his chances he's
32:34clearly struggling here and actually there's a shot from the not test where I
32:40filmed Dan and he said not right now so I could tell he doesn't want to be
32:47filmed in that I totally get it cuz it'll get in his head but I needed this
32:50moment so I'm filming it and he the time ran out and the instructors came over
32:56and it was just nowhere near done he knew that and you know he kind of I
33:01think did a Hail Mary he didn't want to get kicked out of the school
33:04understandably he was so close to being done that was their last day of the test
33:08taking and after that it was just smooth sailing just having fun essentially and
33:12so he went they have the option at the school that you can protest dismissal
33:18and they bring another instructor over there to like hear the case well that's
33:22part of the story yeah no okay so there's one instructor that was
33:25reviewing Gary's work he's like hey this isn't it pack it up and then the other
33:29instructor saw that I was filming it and he goes he's Jake I Jake just take a
33:34step aside and asked me to step aside so I did I got out of the way and he went
33:38in there cuz I could tell that he was kind of concerned about the
33:41confrontation that was happening so then he gets into it he handled it really
33:45well but of course I you know immediately turned back and keep
33:47filming it and then you know Gary brought up a point that they were told
33:51that you know certain knots would be tied that they wouldn't have to waste
33:55their time on he was the only student that had failed the test every other
34:00student was fine tying those knots I think he was just trying to do what he
34:03had to do to stay in the school and get his rams head but you know as soon as he
34:08got kicked out I ran over and I was like hey what happened and he's fine he he
34:12understood he's like yeah I tried protesting it I don't think it's gonna
34:14work going home that's a wild scene like you
34:17think I felt watching it like oh we're out of the woods right like everybody's
34:23good and then but then you have this moment it was like whoa it's not over
34:29yet like and and there's this tension and this back and forth and it was like
34:35a visceral moment I was just like it's so awkward like I'm getting kind of like
34:38butterflies just thinking about it but that that is such a cool scene another
34:43part of this is the fact that they there were only in the squad you were
34:48covering two women yeah in the whole school they're only two in the whole
34:52school not even there were not even in the other squads that you didn't follow
34:56correct so there were two women you you follow them one of them is a is a
35:02lieutenant lieutenant Eiler right and the other one is Norton I forget her
35:07rank she's a sergeant sergeant Norton okay so you're following the two of them
35:11and you're with Eiler one night in their camping section right and she's
35:18just you're filming her just kind of doing a light-hearted check-in
35:21interview and everything seems fine and then you know in your awesome awesome
35:28editing like like things change and then the voiceover comes in and it's like
35:33shortly after we filmed with her Eiler was seen curled up on the ground what
35:39happened well yeah that's exactly what's going through my mind because I
35:42literally had filmed her and she was just checking in just kind of like you
35:46know checking because they were about to go do the ice wall and and then I turned
35:49around because they were cooking the breakfasts over there by the different
35:53stoves I was filming a little bit of that and then you know just kind of
35:56Spidey senses I look over my shoulder and there's kind of a group of people
36:00gathering around a person on the ground so I immediately whip my camera around
36:05and film it and I realized like that's Eiler I just talked to her and she was
36:10fine seemingly fine when I talked to her so you know I go over and film it and
36:15pretty quickly they escorted her to the suss V and she was in the back of
36:19there's like a back area that they keep heated for emergencies and medical
36:22things so I'm kind of asking around like what you know what was going on and
36:26nobody really knew and then one of the instructors came over and kind of filled
36:30me in but essentially the full story there is that they took her into the
36:35suss V and you know warmed her up and then they brought her back outside of
36:39the suss V to see if she could regulate regulate her own body temperature and
36:43from what I was told she was having a hard time maintaining her body
36:48temperature on her own she was just kind of chilled to the core and just
36:52exhausted because again they are rucky it's this is a physical school it's hard
36:58to tell because they're covered in all that gear and it's snowy and she you
37:02know just I think her body was just kind of done they think it was
37:05dehydrated so yeah she wasn't able to continue on with the course and the
37:10amount of time that she was going to need medically to recover she was gonna
37:15miss too much of the school to be able to continue training so she was dismissed
37:19and when she felt better taken to the airport Wow have you checked in I did I
37:25checked in with her she's okay she's back at Walter Reed and she's doing
37:30doing fine and made a full recovery so when Eiler left the course the only
37:37woman left in the course was sergeant Norton right and I love this part of the
37:42story and you know you ask her like what's it like being the only woman left
37:46and she sort of says that and she you can tell she's like disappointed that
37:52Eiler isn't there anymore because they were like the only two women in the
37:56course and they sort of had that that bond and you know she said that Eiler
38:00seemed to be a little bit more comfortable around this type of a group
38:04because she's a lieutenant has that like leadership experience after Eiler left
38:09what were your observations about Norton in the context of like that dynamic of
38:15her being the only woman left actually is really interesting so Norton is
38:19interesting the fact that she was one of the oldest people there she was 38 but
38:23she had some of the least experience she enlisted at 34 which is pretty wild
38:27so she's still kind of like figuring this all out and and like and she was
38:32very clear about that and we talked to the other students she's like you know
38:34I'm new to this like there's a lot of lingo I don't understand whereas Eiler
38:39has been around for a long time and you know she has you know done a lot of
38:44training she's been stationed places and is very used to this kind of setup so I
38:50think that you know Norton although she was one of the older students was really
38:54kind of learning a lot from Eiler and connecting over that so I loved getting
38:58to watch the two of them and then eventually watch Norton cross the finish
39:02line watching this video there's all these shocking moments where people get
39:06cut and tension and all these things and scary moments like with lieutenant Eiler
39:10collapsing but one thing that sort of permeates this this documentary is humor
39:16it's a high-pressure environment they want to they want to pass they want to
39:19succeed they don't want to come back with their tail between their legs
39:22saying yeah I failed this test and got sent home early but there's like always
39:28this humor from day one all the way through the end what what can you say
39:34about that and especially in in the context of such a high-pressure serious
39:39environment I think that humor comes when the stakes are real there is real
39:45pressure from these soldiers to like not die they are dangling and they're
39:52taught this like even like on day four when they're going up the Castle Hill
39:57and the rappelling especially if they slip from that repel I mean the snow is
40:00kind of cushiony so they might have been okay but there's a chance they could be
40:03really harmed and then as the school goes on it's guaranteed if you fall
40:07you're dead so there is like a very real stakes to this but at the same time it's
40:13fun like they all chose to be here they want to learn mountain training so I
40:19think that there's there's kind of this dichotomy between the stakes and just
40:23enjoying the adventure of it that kind of you see these moments of humor where
40:28I mean these are just a bunch of guys who are just out in the snow like like
40:34kids playing in the snow all day and that's essentially what the vibe was for
40:37most of these days there were other days or a little bit more stressful but
40:39they're just having fun the ranks were quickly kind of put to the side it's
40:45just a good group of people to they were just kind of fun well that's one of my
40:48favorite and funniest moments is when they like hit that obstacle that they
40:51weren't expecting and they're like send the major up there he's expendable and
40:56they start making cracks about oh your power your fonts in your PowerPoint
41:00presentation weren't up to snuff I just love that that's one of my favorite
41:04parts of working on the show is that humor that camaraderie you know busting
41:10each other's chops to sort of cut the tension because like they obviously have
41:13to take it seriously all the time but they can't like take themselves too
41:17seriously and I've just I love seeing that I see it in most of the shoots that
41:22I do this just sort of underlying like sense of humor that like makes it fun
41:27because it has to be right yeah there's like a culminating exercise called the
41:33mountain walk that was all it was all building to this but then the weather
41:38got so bad that that they didn't do it right and I've been at schools where
41:43stuff like this happens you know like you've got this big training event but
41:46then for one reason or another it just gets canceled this in this case it was
41:50like the culminating event of the school smugglers notch like that just sounds
41:55really cool describe like the level of disappointment that the students might
42:01have had to not have that experience and for you to not have your like big
42:04main event culminating exercise or were they relieved that they didn't have to
42:09do it well it depends on who you ask I think I think that you know I was pretty
42:16relieved and the reason for that is I was exhausted already I showed up there
42:20and my body was just beat and I and I show up and those first shots in that
42:25scene were the first things I filmed I just because I got there before anyone
42:29was there I pull up into the parking lot at the notch and no one's there so I
42:34film a little bit and then time goes on and I'm starting to wonder like did they
42:37cancel this and just not tell me and then I'm stuck because the roads are bad
42:41out there I'm like what am I gonna do this is like getting a little dangerous
42:44and I'm kind of like getting a little excited like maybe they canceled it
42:48maybe like we'll just do something back at the school and I'll just film that
42:51and we'll go from there and then all of a sudden school bus shows up and I'm
42:55like oh all right this is this is happening this is for real and you know
42:59I have shots of them all walking up to the base of the you know this big gully
43:05they're gonna go up and the snow is just sideways and blinding them yeah and
43:11honestly I was pumped I was like this is gonna look so cool yeah I don't know how
43:15I'm gonna do it but as long as I can get up to the top I'll be okay and like they
43:20were they were coming up with plans on how to make sure I got you know I was
43:24gonna go behind one squad to get like the underneath of them and then get
43:28there before my squad they had second squad go last so I'd be able to get in
43:31front of them to get all of them coming up so we're all ready to go and then we
43:36went in and did the avalanche transceivers yeah that is where shit got
43:41real that's what I want to ask you there's a scene in the piece where you
43:44turn the camera on yourself because avalanches are a real concern especially
43:49in this area and especially on a day like this with weather like this where
43:52at this point they think they're still gonna do it and they came up to you and
43:56they're like yeah Jake you're gonna need one of these devices also where
44:00this avalanche transceiver that essentially will tell people where you
44:04are if you get buried in an avalanche yeah that's like one of those moments in
44:08the movies where they're like you know you're probably wondering how I ended up
44:11here and that's one of those like well I got to do this I'm here this is the last
44:14thing as the guy says in the video this is the last thing we got to do and you
44:18know we've been here two weeks so I was pumped but then with that that came out
44:21I'm like oh this is real and a little like behind-the-scenes thing there was
44:24an avalanche there in that goalie in 2018 and I think it was the advanced
44:30course like four students and two instructors got swept up and including
44:34one of the instructors I filmed it's a very real thing and then on the news
44:37every day in like Colorado there were avalanches happening people were dying
44:40in avalanches and they put this on me and I'm seeing this wind I'm seeing the
44:44snow come in I'm like this is getting really real but I I trust these guys if
44:49there's anybody I'm gonna be with yeah during an avalanche I honestly feel
44:52pretty safe with this school yeah so I just kind of you know put my faith in
44:56them that it'd be okay so then I go back out and I'm filming all my second squad
45:01guys getting ready to go and they say hey we just heard the bad news we're not
45:03doing it what I was I was kind of bummed kind of relieved they were all pretty
45:10disappointed yeah because the hard stuff is over this is just physical stuff now
45:15for them yeah that's that's there that's what they do and now like you know how
45:20people they they like bust each other's chops and stuff like now they're gonna
45:24be people that graduate from mountain school and they're gonna be like oh how
45:27was your mountain walk and they're gonna be like oh we didn't do it the weather
45:30was too bad and they're like oh well then you didn't really graduate yeah
45:34yeah but again like that culminating event is not pass-fail it's for ya it's
45:38really just to show them what they can do with their new skills and it is going
45:43to be really strenuous yeah that argument can be made and but the
45:46instructors were telling me off-camera that that was one of the first times
45:49in the ten years they've been there that that walks been canceled there's
45:53only like a couple of times it's been canceled ever and that that's how
45:56serious it was and they want they wanted me to go film it because the visuals and
46:00that's how dangerous it was and you can see the footage that one of the
46:03instructors sent me from his phone like there were slaps and that you could like
46:07it looked like it could have gotten really bad so I'm so thankful that they
46:10called it and they still did some really cool stuff and just a much safer way
46:14after this whole process to two weeks in this environment doing everything that
46:21we've talked about that you had to do to make it happen get the shots tell the
46:26story what like physical emotional spiritual impacts did it have on you
46:33your body your soul your mind honestly there were pretty profound impacts I
46:38felt really accomplished because you know I had gone through all this and
46:43from where I started on day one wearing my hiking boots and Patagonia coat to
46:49where I was day 14 wearing you know army fatigues and all of that spiritually I
46:54was really proud and I knew I had gotten something really good I had captured a
46:58really good story met some really great people and I got to tell their story
47:01physically there's a pretty drastic change too I had trained for a couple of
47:05months to get ready for this just to get in better shape but even then when I was
47:11there I ended up losing eight pounds while I was there and I was not cutting
47:16back on food it's just it was so physical that I couldn't keep up with
47:21the calories I was burning and right before graduation they have like a scale
47:27in their gym and I decided to step on it because I could tell I had gone down a
47:30belt not or a belt yeah not sure yeah I'd gone down and stepped on the scale
47:35and I was eight pounds lighter from just 14 days ago and again you know nothing
47:41well die I mean sometimes you know you eat Clif bars out in the field but I was
47:44going to breweries at night and like I was eating pretty good and it's just the
47:49impact of how hard that training was really stuck out and there's like one of
47:54those were like I gotta do this story right yeah because I put a lot on the
47:58line to tell the story I lost weight I got stronger and like I don't know I
48:04just it felt really good to get home that night it was Valentine's Day see my
48:09wife and daughter and I was a good feeling well it's another thing about
48:12you you touched on it in the piece is that even though it's really cold you're
48:17moving a lot and you're you're moving up grades and there's a lot of sweat
48:22involved that you that you have to take into account in terms of your clothes
48:27this the sweat can freeze freezing your hair I mean you how did that impact you
48:32it was so sweaty which you don't think you don't think it would be when you're
48:36talking about being in the snowy mountains of Vermont and that's one of
48:40the big problems that I think you know like Isla ran into and other people run
48:43into is it's really hard to stay hydrated in the winter you know as
48:47opposed to the summer you're drinking water you know you need to yeah but you
48:50like when you're wearing that equic system you're wearing those layers it's
48:54pulling moisture out of your body you're climbing they're carrying 50-pound packs
48:58on their back they need to be drinking a lot of water and it's really hard also
49:02because the water freezes there's a shot from day eight where the sergeant
49:07majors water bottle was frozen he had to punch it to try to like be able to drink
49:11out of it my water bottle was freezing up so I was learning some tricks about
49:14how to wrap sweatshirts around my water bottle just so I could get a sip we're
49:18all wearing rented gear for the most part so by day 14 it smelled like a
49:22football locker after like a game it was stinky and grimy in a way that you
49:27wouldn't imagine in the winter because people are really you know sweating a
49:31lot yeah well Jake it's an awesome story an awesome piece and I mean the story
49:36behind the story like what it took to make it happen to get those shots to get
49:43up and down that terrain and get where you needed to be you know just dealing
49:48with all that plus being focused on telling the stories of these people and
49:53following along in this fast-paced training environment and adjusting and
49:57adapting being where you need to be making those like quick decisions it's
50:01just a it is a great achievement just from a production standpoint but the
50:06story itself I think it speaks for itself it's compelling it's there's
50:11action there's humor high stakes awkwardness tension I mean it's just got
50:17it all and I really think that I learned a lot watching it you learn about like
50:21the broader implications of like why they're training for it I would highly
50:25recommend hopefully you've watched it if you're watching this but I I'm really
50:31excited to have it out and proud of it and I'm just so glad you came back in
50:37one piece I'm glad the gear came back in one piece but Jake Jake Gabbard senior
50:41producer here at business insider on the boot camp team congrats and great job
50:47thank you
50:55you