CAMAS — It isn’t often that a documentary premieres at the Liberty Theatre in Camas. But when the subject and the mastermind are both Camas grads, it makes sense.
Last summer, mountain climber Andrew Okerlund, a 2021 Camas graduate, became the youngest person to complete the challenging Bulger List. Okerlund, the subject of “100 Summits: Bulgers in a Season,” summited Washington’s 100 highest peaks in a single season.
Okerlund and Zach Hein, a 2014 Camas graduate, ended up connected by chance — and protein bars.
Hein started making protein bars for his weekend mountaineering adventures during his college years at Montana State University. In 2020, he turned the venture into Range Meal Bars.
If you go
What: Premier of “100 Summits: Bulgers in a Season”
When: 8 p.m. Saturday
Where: Liberty Theatre, 315 N.E. Fourth Ave., Camas
Admission: $7 at camasliberty.com and at the door
When Okerlund reached out to Range Meal Bars and Hein last year looking for corporate sponsors, Hein was happy to help.
“Andrew reached out — just an email looking for sponsorship,” said Hein, now a mechanical engineer living in Seattle. “He was a college student on a shoestring budget and was looking for a food sponsorship.”
That conversation led to far more than a donation. By the time Okerlund began his quest in June 2023, he and Hein had hatched a plan to make a documentary detailing Okerlund’s Bulger List climbs.
“I can’t remember who brought it up, but it quickly evolved into me helping him bring that together,” Hein said. “That was a first for me, so I reached out to some of the contacts I’d worked with previously.”
Photographer and mountain climber Ross James Wallette agreed to join Okerlund on several of his climbs. Hein also contacted Ridge Runner Films out of Nashville, Tenn., and Chris Price, an Austin, Texas-based video editor, to turn the raw footage into a documentary.
“When we first started planning in June or July, we had no plot,” Hein said. “We were predicting what the plot might look like, but we didn’t really know.”
The story wouldn’t unfold until Okerlund was on the mountains, trying to set a record as the youngest Bulger List climber. He was racing against the clock to complete all 100 climbs before his fall semester at school and contending with challenges such as wildfires and rock slides.
Hein joined Okerlund on a few of his climbs.
“All of this was new to me,” Hein said. “But Andrew’s confidence and optimism definitely led to success on those peaks.”
Hein said one of the themes that emerged in the documentary was the question of whether Okerlund would be able to complete his quest after a wildfire threatened to shut down his late-summer climbs.
“When the Sourdough Fire started, if and how Andrew would be able to finish was a big question mark,” Hein said.
The Sourdough Fire started July 29 in Whatcom County and quickly consumed more than 6,300 acres.
The film also focuses on the friendship that formed between Okerlund and Wallette, who barely knew each other when they started.
“You also see how Andrew changes,” Hein said. “He goes into it so young and as a relatively new climber, but after some close calls, you can see he is growing, building his judgment.”
The documentary will premiere Saturday at the Liberty Theatre. The documentary crew, along with Okerlund, will be at the premiere, Hein said, and will stay afterward for a question-and-answer session. Doors open at 7:30 p.m. and the show starts at 8 p.m. Tickets are $7 at camasliberty.com and at the door.
Other shows will be 2 p.m. Sunday, June 2, at the Varsity Theater in Seattle; and 2 p.m. Sunday, June 9, at the Mission Theater in Northwest Portland.
The documentary will be available free online after June 14.
