Matt Gunn is a family man, writer, photographer, and Squamish resident working as a civil planner for the community. He is also a lifelong mountaineer and outdoor enthusiast. Matt’s 2005 guidebook, Scrambles in Southwest British Columbia, laid the foundation for an explosion of alpine activity in Vancouver’s Sea-to-Sky corridor—arguably one of the world’s best regions for alpine accessibility.
Scrambling, as Matt describes it, “is the middle ground between hiking and mountaineering,” offering access to incredible wilderness summits without ropes or advanced climbing techniques. At the time of the book’s release, little information existed about accessing many of the area’s remarkable peaks—fueling the guidebook’s rapid rise in local popularity.
Over the next 20 years, Matt’s self-published book gained cult-like status, with almost every mountain enthusiast in the region knowing its name. Nearly two decades later, Matt set his sights on revisiting the guidebook and developing a long-awaited follow-up, despite its continued renown.
The Guidebook follows Matt as he travels through the Sea-to-Sky corridor and surrounding ranges to establish new routes and revisit old ones—while confronting a deeper internal struggle: the responsibility that comes with providing information that can lead people into dangerous or deadly situations in the mountains. With insight and involvement from Squamish Search and Rescue, the film highlights the real consequences, risks, and ethical weight behind documenting and sharing alpine access.
At its core, The Guidebook is a mountain culture portrait of a seemingly ordinary man whose work helped shape a new generation of alpine enthusiasts. The film unpacks the highs and lows, contention, celebrations, and personal reckonings that come with following a passion to its fullest—especially when that passion carries profound real-world consequences.
Alexi Liotti is an English and French–speaking award-winning director and cinematographer, and a proud member of the Directors Guild of Canada. In 2025, he worked on projects supported by The North Face, Red Bull, and Arc’teryx, while his independently produced debut feature, Rematriation, earned multiple international awards. His second feature, The Guidebook, a mountain-culture film financed by Ortovox, is now in post-production. A versatile “shooter-director” with nine years’ experience across film, television, and branded content, Alexi brings technical precision and emotional depth to his work—delivering bold, resonant storytelling that challenges the status quo.
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