This idea grew in Chris Benchetler’s mind for over a decade — but life had to run its course before he could finally execute it.
First, in 2013, he skied in the lightsuit segment in the Sweetgrass Productions film Afterglow. Then, in 2019, he made Fire on the Mountain with Teton Gravity Research (TGR), which became an instant cult classic ski flick. Athletes in skeleton LED suits shredded blower powder, sent big air, and ripped mountains apart under the cover of darkness, all to the music of the Grateful Dead, the soundtrack of Benchetler’s life.
Those films opened doors, made connections, and sowed the seeds of his latest, and self-described “greatest project yet”: Mountains of the Moon. It’s the next evolution of what started in Afterglow and came to life in Fire on the Mountain. On Nov. 14, it will explode onto big screens across the U.S. So what is it, exactly? Even Benchetler struggles to put a label on this psychedelic film.
“I can confidently say this is not a ski movie at all … It’s a very abstract art project,” Benchetler told GearJunkie. “The film is about capturing light and shadows and contrast and trying to paint these natural landscapes using the athletes as the brushstrokes.”
If that isn’t trippy enough, buckle up. Mountains of the Moon includes Grateful Dead music, played live in some scenes by surviving members of the band, while athletes launch over them in glowing skeleton suits. There are surf, bike, climb, swim, and ski segments. Psilocybin mushrooms even have a role, and the whole thing is narrated by famed psychonaut and mycologist extraordinaire Paul Stamets.
There’s a lot going on. Without a doubt, Benchetler said, this is the biggest project he’s ever worked on — let alone directed. “This is a culmination of everything in my life,” he said.
‘Turning the Lights Back On’
Benchetler has had a lifelong passion for the Grateful Dead’s music. So, after Fire on the Mountain came out in 2019, when Benchetler started developing a relationship with the Dead’s original drummer, Mickey Hart, it felt surreal. In 2023, Dead & Company used some of his footage from Fire on the Mountain for the band’s final live tour.
Bencheler saw the success of Fire on the Mountain and recognized he’d struck a vein. But he couldn’t stop thinking about how he could do it differently — better — and how much deeper he could take that concept.
“The technology had evolved, and my skill sets in directing had evolved, and my relationships had grown,” Benchetler said. “Ever since the last film, I was conceptualizing what wasn’t done and what could have been done.”
The thought lingered in his mind for years, growing, taking shape. Then, Benchetler finally pitched his vision to Hart.
“I told him that I was turning the lights back on,” Benchetler said. “And [I asked him] if he had any interest in coming to Mammoth and drumming on top of the mountain.”
The answer was a resounding yes. Hart even offered to score part of the film himself.
Making the Suits More Than Skeletons
To achieve Benchetler’s vision, the athletes — skiers, riders, bikers, climbers, surfers, and swimmers — would have to be decked out in state-of-the-art LED skeleton suits that were wind and waterproof, could insulate, and would be durable enough to take a beating in snow, on rock, or underwater.
So Benchetler turned to his sponsor Arc’teryx and his friend Shane Treat for help.
“Arc’teryx built the [suits] from a functionality standpoint. They did cutting, sewing, heat molding, all of the things that they needed to do to connect the suit,” he said. “And then my friend Shane, who is a brilliant mad scientist, was the one who figured out how to light the thing … The suits themselves are an engineering marvel that were so wildly complicated to create.”
Benchetler had made the skeleton suits for Fire on the Mountain. But this time, he wanted them to be works of art. He asked Arc’teryx to design a holographic material that would reflect the light of the suit so it would look like it was “floating in time and space.”
“The element of the skeleton was so much more than just Dead iconography,” he said. “I really wanted to dive deeply into what skeletons represent by what’s lying beneath the surface … I was trying to represent life and death and the energy that connects us all by how they glow.”
Arc’teryx pulled members of its apparel design team off their work to focus on this project. It took them and Treat 6 months to perfect the design, and the end result is nothing short of stunning.
Painting With Light, Using Athletes as Brush Strokes
Everything changes when you light natural features up at night. Suddenly, the light source isn’t coming from above — it’s wherever you want it to be. That perspective shift tickled Benchetler, who got to play with how every scene, whether it was on a mountain, in the woods, on water, or on rock, was lit.
That’s not a liberty action sports filmmakers usually get to take.
“Nighttime offers such a different portal into the unseen,” he said. “It really does allow you to sculpt with light and paint the landscape with intention. When you control the sun, you bring so much new terrain out.”
To Benchetler, it flipped the familiar into the unfamiliar, changed the perspective, and made the mountains, beach, or forest a canvas he could manipulate. Then, the neon athletes could take the stage to do the painting.
Mountains of the Moon: Deeper, Deeper, Deeper
The deeper you dive into Mountains of the Moon, the more artistic layers you will uncover.
Benchetler also made all of the trippy graphic interludes featured in the film himself, from skeletons drumming on mushrooms to a stained-glass dome that shatters over the audience. He embedded a subtle but heartfelt tribute to his friend Mike Gardner, who passed away in Nepal during filming. This also happened to be the Dead’s 60th anniversary, and Benchetler was selected to design the band’s 60th anniversary logo.
“The universe chose the timing for me. It wasn’t some master plan to release this during the Grateful Dead’s 60th anniversary,” he said. “But it happened that way. Then they put a call out to a lot of past artists to design the 60th anniversary logo, and mine got selected.”
All of the pieces fell into place. That’s not to say that making this film was without challenges. Benchetler said that it was hard to wrangle everyone at times, with so many athletes, personalities, and creatives involved. But he’s proud of the end result.
“I feel like the universe kind of presented the opportunity for me,” Benchetler said. “It put all of these people in my life and all of these pieces of the puzzle. It was just up to me to be open-minded and open-hearted enough to see it coming through and create something with all of these amazing humans and concepts and ideas.”
Check out the “Mountains of the Moon” website for full theater screening listings and release information.
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