For Team Alaskans, trekking across the backcountry is what they do. These savvy mountain veterans are in their element at high elevations and treacherous terrain. Armed with ice axes and climbing ropes, the highest peaks can’t keep these expert climbers from flourishing in their environment, seeking out direct routes to win challenges as fast as they can.

Back for their third season, mountain man Marty Raney and pig-peak racer Tyler Johnson are joined by the world-renowned mountaineer and old friend, Vern Tejas. Get to know the team below.

Tyler Johnson  (@TylerJohnsonAK)

Marty Raney describes himself as many things: log builder, stone mason, explorer. But first and foremost, Marty is an experienced mountain guide, who’s been leading mountain expeditions and adventures for over 40 years across Alaska. Raney has led 17 trips to the summit of Denali, the highest peak in North America, and well over a dozen expeditions on Mt. McKinley, all with a guitar on his back.

After losing a friend to the treacherous McKinley climb, Marty knows all too well that living a life of adventure can come at a cost. Raney knows the best and worst that the Alaskan wilderness has to offer, and can contribute his weathered perspective to Team Alaskans’ strengths. Marty’s words of wisdom: “The turtle goes nowhere unless he sticks his neck out.”

Vern Tejas

Adventure is Vern Tejas‘ vocation. Originally hailing from Texas, Vern moved to Alaska in search of adventure, pursuing the rush of the mountains. An expert mountain guide, Vern became the first person ever to climb Denali alone in the winter. In addition to climbing, Vern is an accomplished whitewater rafter, sea kayaker and ski guide, with mountain biking and high-altitude paragliding also among his skills.

In addition to his decades of skills, Vern brings an infectious spirit and positive attitude to his adventures. Plus, who else on Ultimate Survival Alaska can say he’s climbed the highest mountains in Europe, Africa and Antarctica naked?

Learn more about Team Alaskans in the video profile below, and don’t miss the Ultimate Survival Alaska premiere THIS Sunday, January 4 at 9/8c. 

Although I’ve been shooting an overabundance of wildlife, I thought it might be a good idea to talk about my experience shooting people on this trip. I do love and appreciate nature, but I’ll admit my style of documentary filmmaking predominately comprises of intimate portraits. My work focuses on people with the visuals driven by strong cinema vérité and compelling interviews. It’s been interesting shooting wildlife because you don’t necessary have a human connection. While there’s definitely an energy and rush I get when I film animals, especially during an action scene (I shot vultures devouring a rotting elephant carcass the other day and it was magnificent. If only we had “smellavision”. The stench was beyond pungent!), you can’t interview the animals…

Thus, my solution was to also film as many people as I could on this trip in order to get some sort of background, knowledge, and voice that could guide the superb wildlife visuals. So far, I’ve interviewed the Chief Park Warden, two park rangers, and the Tourism Park Warden of Tarangire National Park. I also interviewed two chief leaders of a local Maasai Tribe near Tarangire. On the AWF side of the spectrum, I’ve interviewed students and teachers from the AWF funded Manyara Ranch Primary School and a guy named Rama, who runs an AWF WMA (Wildlife Management Area) in Burunge. In case you’re wondering, WMAs are community lands operating as a protected area and typically comprised of a collection of villages. These villages agree to follow certain conservation agreements as a means of obtaining wildlife tourism revenues or other benefits that may come about from conservation.

I’ve been learning tremendously about the importance of conservation from these people who make it their life’s work to protect and nurture the wildlife and wild lands of Africa. While everyone has a different take on the various conservation issues within the Maasai Steppe Landscape, the overall consensus is that conservation is absolutely necessary not only for the livelihood of wildlife and the economy, but more importantly, “for the sake of future generations.” I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard that line said over and over again.

Although meeting and interviewing this eclectic mix of people has been absolutely rewarding, there have been many challenges throughout the production process. First off, one must understand that filmmaking is a collaborative art. Shooting and even photographing wildlife can easily be managed by one person, but when you’re one-band-manning an interview…it’s quite a hilarious site to see. You’re doing the job of three people: managing sound, while managing the camera, while managing the subject, and asking the questions. It’s especially exciting when the interview is in Swahili. Thank God for my driver/fixer/interview translator, Dickson. I don’t know what I’d do without him. If there’s one talent I gained on this trip, it has definitely been the art of multi-tasking. Never thought I’d play the role of director, producer, sound mixer, and DP.

However, it’s all in a day’s work and what I enjoy most about documentary filmmaking. Not only do I love wearing multiple hats, but also, I take pride in being a voice and platform to people who would otherwise never get the chance to tell their story. Nonfiction is my favorite type of filmmaking because you are confronted with real human emotion and challenges. More to come about my last week here with Bob Poole!

Dan Duran is the winner of the first annual Wild to Inspire short film contest, launched last year in partnership with the African Wildlife Foundation (AWF) and the Sun Valley Film Festival.  As the winner, he’ll be documenting  Tanzania’s dynamic Manyara–Tarangire ecosystem, which includes Tarangire and Lake Manyara National Parks and the AWF-managed Manyara Ranch Conservancy. This is the first post in a series where he’ll spotlight Africa’s wild side and share his experiences from the field as a wildlife filmmaker.  

Want to follow in Dan’s footsteps?  Enter the second annual Wild to Inspire short film contest through January 17th – visit natgeowild.com/wildtoinspire for more details.

The golden poison dart frog is considered one of the most toxic animals on Earth. A single specimen measuring two inches (five centimeters) has enough venom to kill ten grown men. Indigenous Emberá people of Colombia have used its powerful venom for centuries to tip their blowgun darts when hunting, hence the species' name.

These brightly colored amphibians are among the largest of the more than 100 poison dart frog species, averaging more than one inch (two and a half centimeters) in length. They live within a tiny plot of rain forest on the Pacific coast of Colombia. And though the population in its small range is abundant, widespread decimation of the rain forest has landed this species on international endangered lists.

Their coloring, which can be yellow, orange, or pale green, depending on their particular range, is deliberately ostentatious to ward off potential predators, a tactic called aposematic coloration. Their diet includes flies, crickets, ants, termites, and beetles.

Scientists are unsure of the source of this frog's amazing toxicity, but it is possible they assimilate plant poisons, which are carried by their prey. Poison dart frogs raised in captivity and isolated from insects in their native habitat never develop venom.

The medical research community has been exploring possible medicinal uses for the golden poison dart frog's venom. They have already developed a synthetic version of one of the venom's compounds that has promise as a powerful painkiller.

Jaguars are the largest of South America's big cats. They once roamed from the southern tip of that continent north to the region surrounding the U.S.-Mexico border. Today significant numbers of jaguars are found only in remote regions of South and Central America—particularly in the Amazon Basin.

These beautiful and powerful beasts were prominent in ancient Native American cultures. In some traditions the Jaguar God of the Night was the formidable lord of the underworld. The name jaguar is derived from the Native American word yaguar, which means "he who kills with one leap."

Unlike many other cats, jaguars do not avoid water; in fact, they are quite good swimmers. Rivers provide prey in the form of fish, turtles, or caimans—small, alligatorlike animals. Jaguars also eat larger animals such as deer, peccaries, capybaras, and tapirs. They sometimes climb trees to prepare an ambush, killing their prey with one powerful bite.

Most jaguars are tan or orange with distinctive black spots, dubbed "rosettes" because they are shaped like roses. Some jaguars are so dark they appear to be spotless, though their markings can be seen on closer inspection.

Jaguars live alone and define territories of many square miles by marking with their waste or clawing trees.

Females have litters of one to four cubs, which are blind and helpless at birth. The mother stays with them and defends them fiercely from any animal that may approach—even their own father. Young jaguars learn to hunt by living with their mothers for two years or more.

Jaguars are still hunted for their attractive fur. Ranchers also kill them because the cats sometimes prey upon their livestock.