CENTRE WELLINGTON – Jason Dekorte had always dreamed of seeing Machu Picchu and climbing a mountain in Peru.
But life intervened.
A marriage, job and four kids later, the Fergus man had put his dream on the back burner.
And he was cool with that. Until he met Frederick Schuett, who runs One Axe Pursuits in Elora.
It’s an enterprise that involves more than just ziplining across the Elora Gorge in the summer months.
Schuett also guides ice climbing in the gorge in the winter, runs mountaineering courses, works behind the scenes on rigging for reality TV shows, commercials and special events, and sets up Mission Impossible-style courses for large parties and corporate events.
“I get weird stuff all the time – even zombie apocalypse training,” he said in an interview in his Elora studio.
Schuett learned about Dekorte’s dream after months of working out together.
“I didn’t realize it was his lifelong dream,” Schuett said. “That’s the kind of thing I plan. It intrigued me too.”
It was seven years ago when they decided to take a nine-day trek in the mountains of Peru with no support, carrying everything on their backs.
To make it even more challenging, Schuett decided to film the trek for a documentary entitled Carrying a Dream, which will premiere on May 24 at Central Church in Elora from 6:30 to 9pm.
But first they had to up their training to get their bodies conditioned for the strenuous climbing and thin mountain air.
So for six months they met twice a week for two hours at a time, using the steps from Elora’s Victoria Park down to the gorge as their primary exercise tool. They’d climb the stairs multiple times in a row with a pack on their back, gradually increasing the weight until they could carry 50 pounds.
Filming the trek meant carrying an extra 10 pounds of camera equipment, taking extra time to set up shots, and walking the extra distance to set up the camera and then walking back to film the forward climb.
So the journey was even more strenuous than they thought.
And they actually didn’t get to Machu Picchu, which sees about 2,500 tourists a day, opting instead to take the trails untraveled by tourists.
“There are hundreds of Inca trails that no one does,” Schuett said. “But the locals use them. There were days on end when we didn’t see anyone.
“And every day was so unique,” he continued. “One side (of the mountain) was totally different from the other.”
The highest point they scaled was the pass between two mountains. But that was still high, without much level land, even for pitching a tent.
Schuett said it was fascinating to see the Inca ruins.
The Incas built terraces on the mountainside to have flat land for growing food, and built irrigation systems channelling rain runoff to agricultural areas.
“The irrigation systems still worked, 500 years later,” Schuett said. “We even found some beans growing, all on their own.”
They also came across abandoned silver mines, complete with pickaxes and tracks.
They travelled eight to 10 hours a day and gained a lot of elevation.
“It was hard on the body,” Schuett admitted. “We took a lot of abuse.”
But the payoff was almost as extreme as the trek and preparations for the trip.
“It was breathtakingly beautiful scenery,” Schuett said. “Honestly, I’ve never seen anything like it.”
Schuett has been working on the film off and on since returning from the trip.
Life continued to intervene for both of the men, but it’s satisfying to have one more box checked on the “to-do” list.
Now that it’s done, Schuett hopes the 90-minute film is accepted into the Banff Film Festival in the feature film category.
Looking back on the film and the trip, Dekorte said it’s like a dream – it happened, but it feels unreal.
“I’m just an ordinary guy with an ordinary life and I’ve been on an extraordinary adventure,” Dekorte said.
“To do the thing we did, with no guides and no support, pushed me to places I’ve never been. This is so outside of my normal life. I’m thrilled I got to do the trip.”
Tickets for the May 24 premiere are $5 for adults, $2 for children, and can be purchased at buytickets.at/oneaxepursuits/1182938.
