Matt Gunn's 2005 guidebook, Scrambles in Southwest British Columbia, helped introduce a generation of mountain enthusiasts to the mountains of British Columbia's Sea-to-Sky corridor. Nearly two decades later, as he works toward a long-awaited follow-up, Matt returns to the routes that shaped the book's legacy—revisiting old scrambles, establishing new routes, and reflecting on the impact of his life's work.
But documenting access to wild places comes with consequences.
As scrambling grows in popularity, Matt finds himself grappling with an increasingly difficult question: what responsibility comes with publishing information that can lead people into beautiful, remote, and dangerous terrain?
Set against the dramatic backdrop of British Columbia's Coast Mountains and featuring insight from Squamish Search and Rescue, The Guidebook is a portrait of a man confronting the unintended consequences of a lifelong passion. Through Matt's journey, the film explores risk, responsibility, and the ethical weight of handing others the keys to beautiful—but dangerous—mountain kingdoms.
Director Biography - Alexi Liotti
Alexi Liotti is a Canadian documentary director, cinematographer, and member of the Directors Guild of Canada whose work explores the relationship between people, place, and nature. Through a cinematic visual approach, his films examine themes of environmental stewardship, cultural identity, and our evolving relationship with the landscapes we inhabit.
His debut feature documentary, Rematriation, received the Viewers' Choice Award at the BC Environmental Film Festival and Best Environmental Film at the Vancouver International Mountain Film Festival. His subsequent films include The Guidebook, which premiered on the Sold-Out Opening Night of the 2026 Vancouver International Mountain Film Festival, and Land Less, recipient of Third Prize in the 2026 Yale Environment 360 Film Contest, presented by the Yale School of the Environment. His work has screened at festivals internationally.
His films have been supported by organizations and brands including ORTOVOX, Arc'teryx, The North Face, Red Bull, and the CBC. Based in British Columbia, Alexi uses landscape as a lens through which to explore larger questions of responsibility, stewardship, and our relationship with the natural world.
Director Statement
Matt Gunn's Scrambles in Southwest British Columbia has inspired mountain enthusiasts throughout British Columbia's Sea-to-Sky corridor for more than two decades. Like many others, I discovered the book early in my own journey into the mountains. It opened my eyes to the remarkable backcountry access that exists just beyond Vancouver and fundamentally changed my relationship with the landscape around me.
What drew me to this film, however, was not simply the guidebook's influence, but the question at its centre. Every guidebook, map, photograph, film, or social media post that encourages people to visit a wild place carries both opportunity and consequence.
Through Matt's story, I wanted to explore the responsibility that comes with sharing access to beautiful but dangerous places. Ultimately, The Guidebook is a film about confronting the complicated realities that emerge from our actions, and the responsibility we carry when those actions shape the choices of others.
