Arc’teryx Embarks on ‘The Season’ of Outdoor Storytelling

Escape. The web isn’t clamoring with that many series that truly rip us out of our office chairs. Often we’re given mere momentary amusement. But I’m talking about the ones that suck us through our laptop screens and into a world so refreshingly different yet intimately familiar we actually feel transported.

Everyone has something that gives them this kind of escape. For me, it’s a show that propels me into the land of ski tracks in fresh powder, vertical drops and climbing 5.10’s. Pure adrenaline daydreaming. Luckily, I may have just found my new episodic winter escape.

Fitz Cahall is a natural storyteller, crafting 20 episodes of an NPR-worthy podcast of outdoor adventures called The Dirtbag Diaries. His real life human tales of triumph are This American Life for REI junkies. But now, Cahall is taking the leap into web series, with the upcoming premiere of The Season later this month. It’s 22 episodes of outdoor goodness, all shot in HD, following the unique stories of five individual dreamers from the Pacific Northwest. Guys like Paul Kuthe, a kayaker who overcame a difficult past and rock climber Matt Maddaloni who invented a new camera rigging system for filming climbs.

“The idea, or maybe the question, behind the series is this,” wrote Cahall in a recent blog post about the series. “Could we take compelling stories from our community, combine it with tightly crafted footage and create small installments that reveal a bigger story?”

Cahall and his producing partner Bryan Smith of Reel Water Productions managed to score high-end outdoor clothing line Arc’teryx along with microbrewer New Belgium Brewery to sponsor the series. New episodes of The Season will in fact debut on Arc’teryx’ site before heading to Vimeo and iTunes where much of Cahall’s podcast audience finds him.