We’re kicking off the filming of Treeverse this week, as we follow Brian French and Will Koomjian of Ascending the Giants on an unparalleled adventure as they attempt a pioneering effort to navigate a one kilometer transect through the forest canopy over five days.

A production of this kind takes a large team, and everyone from the climbers to the rigging crew has been working hard to make sure this project comes together. Beyond the usual planning the logistics of base camp, we’ve been busy doing everything from coordinating all the photo and video gear that will get us the best shots to dying rigging rope black to keep it hidden from the cameras.

None of this would be possible without all of the support that we had on Kickstarter, or without the help of our presenting sponsors: Pro Photo Supply, Sterling Rope, Sherrill Tree, Samson Rope and Asia Tree Preservation (Arboriculture Tools).

Sterling Rope once white, now black and practically invisible in the canopy...

Our climbers have been prepping hard for this project as well.

“We’ve put in about a months worth of conditioning ourselves and our gear for the 5 day trek. I stand by the saying ‘Practice makes perfect.’ In this case though, because we’re exploring uncharted territories and our methods are still developing, we are finding that ‘Practice changes perpetually.’ I am optimistic about the outcome. All athletes seem to have at least one thing in common and that is you train as much as you can, but in the end you still hope for a good day,” French said.

Climbing and filming kicks off bright and early Wednesday morning. For updates keep an eye here and on the Ascending the Giants Facebook page.

We’d also like to thank all of our other sponsors that are making this project come together: Rock Exotica, Next Adventure, New Tribe, Aarn Bodypacks, Smartwool, Gerber, Innate Gear, Red Reel, Clif Bar, Scarpa,  Northwest Aero Pix, Widmer, Climb Max Mountaineering, Nuun, Freesolo Photography, Brew Dr. Kombucha and Cascade Designs.

More on Treeverse here.