Low points of a multifaceted shoot: Day one—biking by night, a racer cracks his best joke a minute too late. Day two—bushwhacking with the racers, a videographer almost loses his camera as well as his shot. Day three—trapped on a mountaintop, half the TV crew awaits a team that never shows up.

Even when he looked “pretty shattered,” Boyd Matson 60>> was “a true pro,” according to videographer Gus Roxburgh, who biked with the team for 12 hours. 05>> Riding downhill in the dark, Boyd kept remembering a recent motorbiking accident, which made the trek even harder for him.

To Gus’s dismay, Boyd waited till he knew the camera was off before wondering aloud, “Will I feel my testicles again someday?” His teammates’ cheerful response: “Don’t worry. You won’t need them this week anyway!”

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How do we make this look as hard as it is? At their first meeting the camera crew wrestled with the question. The perils of adventure racing aren’t easy to capture on film, and it was essential that the audience know and feel how grueling the Southern Traverse is.

Yves Simard 03>> suggested shots of competitors’ feet, struggling to stay steady through dense vegetation. He got a chance to try his own advice during a 23-hour trek with the Macpac Geographic team. Yves waded waist-high into a stream to film Boyd Matson’s efforts to navigate slippery rocks.

A fall now would be really spectacular, Yves thought. Not a nanosecond later, Boyd obliged him. He plunged into the frigid stream, completely soaking himself and his pack. Cold, wet, and furious, Boyd had fallen into some stunning footage. Except...

As he fell, Boyd nearly landed on Yves, almost driving camera and cameraman into the drink. Boyd’s arm hit the power cord on Yves’s camera, shutting it off. So the scene was captured only on memory.

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It seemed like a good idea Tuesday morning: Ride an AS 350-B chopper to the top of Hindley Peak 08>>, get some incredible shots of Boyd Matson and the Macpac Geographic team as they rappelled down, and head home a few hours later.

The only problem was that fog showed up and the athletes didn’t. As visibility dwindled to 20 feet (6 meters), the TV crew realized they’d be spending a night out—a wet night out.

They had too few tents and not enough sleeping bags—which only acted as sponges anyway. There was no way to escape a drenching.

Wednesday morning brought no relief. Nor did the afternoon. Finally, after 36 shivering hours and no sign of Macpac Geographic, the film crew decided it was time to hike down the mountain—-empty-handed. The 90-minute descent, steep and slick, nearly proved fatal for videographer Geoff Mackley, who fell down a cliff.

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