When The Outliers first dropped back in 2023, Mark Rainery, Ryland Bell and crew had no expectations about how it would be received. It was a complete DIY project, self-filmed and scrapped together by Rainery with a handful of hard drives and a lot of heart, intended as a gathering point for a snowboard scene spread across the isolated big mountain outposts of southeast Alaskan.
That film landed exceedingly well, receiving half a million views and counting on YouTube. So, they made another. The Outliers 2 was nominated for three awards at the iF3 Festival. Turns out that when you build a project out of love, it resonates—and it doesn’t hurt that this crew can board their beloved Chilkat Mountains better than most.
Still, for a film series to thrive, it needs to grow—give the people the exact same thing year after year and they get bored. Last year’s third installment of the series looked further afield, building upon their goal of showcasing the local Alaskan snowboard community by calling in footage from a few friends in and around Anchorage. It was a subtle evolution, but a necessary one.
That carries into The Outliers 4, with a segment featuring a crew riding the Chugach out of Valdez, but it doesn’t stray too far from its roots. Notably, there’s an unexpected but very appreciated ending with a pure, raw descent of a huge spine line by longtime Haines local and heli guide Lucas Merli. It’s an immersive display of pure big mountain riding that might make you drop everything and plan a trip to Haines this spring. It’s one of those “must be present to win” kinda moments, and perfectly encapsulates what this crew is chasing, why they continue to live and ride around Haines.
Recently, we caught up with Rainery as he was putting the finishing touches on The Outliers 4. We began the conversation with Merli’s line.
The Snowboarder’s Journal: I love how the film ends with Lucas’s raw line. It’s like, “Here's something rad, let's just live it in the moment.” What’s the story with that line?
It’s called The Dark Side. I think it had been ridden in the past [Shin Campos rode it first], but that was maybe the first time it's ever been filmed. It was the right time of year for the sun to just kiss that spine for most of the top section. We decided to run it raw, top to bottom, to show what it was really like to ride that line.
It got me excited to go to Alaska this year—it worked. Rewinding to the start of the film, who is Gary Richardson?
Gary is a guy I found through Instagram just seeing his Valdez footage that he was posting. I cold called him after a couple text exchanges, like “Hey, would you be interested in contributing some footage? Because you seem like you're on the same sort of wavelength as we are in Haines but at Thompson Pass and around Valdez.” He was all for it and sent me raw footage from the past maybe two seasons. He and his crew have been doing the same drone program as us, taking turns filming each other.
Are there a lot of different crews doing the same thing as you, but maybe not putting the footage together at the end of the year?
Tons of people film each other around Haines, Valdez, and Girdwood, but a lot of the footage doesn’t make it out of the state.
It’s cool to see some fresh terrain and riders in the same style as the other films. You’re expanding the network and it adds a little spark. Are Worm and Inaki honorary residents of Haines now?
I think they're getting mail out at Porcupine [out the road from Haines] so yeah (laughs). They're hanging out with the guys out there all spring and get on the sleds with them and they’re touring around. They almost have their own zones locked down in the area.
It takes a special person to integrate out the road. Process wise has the film evolved at all or are you still just taking hard drives from all over the place and splicing it together over the summer?
Yeah, I just collect all the footage from everybody or reach out to people and see if they're interested in being a part of it, trying to get the whole community some screen time.
You got a good stack of local sponsors. Does it feel like more than prior years, and does it provide enough support to keep you behind a monitor for months on end?
It’s mostly local people helping us out and it’s similar this year to last. I edited for a big chunk of the summer so it’s nice to get a little support, but that’s not the main reason for doing the movie. I just want everybody to be stoked at the end.
You had a bit of a personal shift last season and started working as a guide at SEABA, right?
I started as a rookie guide last year and also was filming most of their social media stuff. I'll be going back there [to Haines] by the end of February for the heli season again.
Did previous work with The Outliers help you get in the door with them?
They helped facilitate one of our super sessions a couple winters ago where we had free reign at the end of the season with a nice weather window, and that was a good first step for meeting the whole crew and interacting with them in big terrain. The next season they let me hang all spring waiting to get into a production ship, but I didn’t get out much. I was sitting in the lodge watching everyone score, so by the end I was like, “What do I gotta do to get in the heli.” I don’t have much budget. It seemed like being a guide was what I needed to do, and they were down to facilitate it.
I was never expecting or planning to go that route, but they made it pretty easy for me. I did the courses and got the certs required and they threw me in there right away on the private ship program, tail guiding with Lucas Merli with clients who wanted to get on bigger stuff.
I’m sure it helps that you can film those clients too. Is there anything else about the film this year that we haven’t discussed?
It’s hard to say because I’ve spent the past six months chipping away at it. I try to get as much scenic stuff as possible to showcase the terrain up here because it’s so special. The main goal remains trying to showcase all the riders around the region around the state.
Hopefully we get to do another one this winter. Every year, every spring after it's all said and done, we're all pretty surprised that that we have enough footage to make something again.
When you’re out there doing it every day because you love it, it just happens...
Yeah, I guess it does.