The Story You Didn’t See
(Or: everything that didn’t fit into 44 minutes of television)
We’re deeply grateful to have shared our lives on Ben Fogle: New Lives in the Wild. But television has limits. Time runs out. Weather moves in. Batteries die. And sometimes reality is simply messier, slower, and funnier than a clean storyline allows.
So here’s the fuller version—organized in a way that fits the spirit of the show, with a little honest humor where it belongs.
1. Why we’re really here (hint: it’s not a resort)
Let’s start with the most important clarification:
We are not building a traditional ski resort.
No lifts. No luxury spa. No shopping village. No “please remain indoors and enjoy the ambiance.”
Elev8150 is a mountain basecamp. A place to eat, sleep, gear up, and get back outside. The buildings are intentionally rustic and simple because the mountains are the main event—not the room you’re staying in.
We also plan on hosting a very small number of guests per year. This is not about volume.
Our guiding principle is simple: less is more.
2. Why this place exists at all: recreation (a lot of it)
One of the biggest things the cameras didn’t show is that we didn’t come here just to build—we came here to live.
Recreation isn’t a side note. It’s the reason this place exists.
Our real, everyday life includes:
Backcountry skiing
Snowmobiling
UTV riding
Hiking
Stargazing (the “wow, we’re insignificant” kind)
Whitewater kayaking and rafting
Jet skiing
4x4 / rock crawling
Hunting
Big game watching
Camping (yes… even though we live outside already)
We own the gear. We use it. Constantly.
None of this was filmed simply because there wasn’t time—or it didn’t fit the episode’s story arc.
Also worth noting: this is why construction sometimes pauses. Powder days happen. We’re human.
3. The dream didn’t start with Brandon
This matters more than people realize.
Elev8150 was Alisa’s idea.
She wanted land that matched our family’s outdoor, seasonal lifestyle.
At the time, Brandon was already renting a shop and building expedition 5-ton vehicles. He dropped everything to help build her dream. Not because it was easy—but because it mattered.
This project exists because of partnership, not ego.
4. The kids are driving this harder than we are
This is not a “parents forcing a lifestyle” situation.
The kids want this—badly.
For them, Elev8150 is a gigantic, real-world playground where seasons matter, skills matter, and life feels tangible. We sent Alayah off to build her culinary career fully expecting she might never return.
She did return.
Because it turns out there’s not a lot of everyday fun in the “real world.”
That should probably tell you everything you need to know.
5. We are not broke. We are not desperate.
This is a big one.
At the moment, we are completely debt-free.
If we stopped building tomorrow and never finished Elev8150, we would still be fine heading into retirement.
So no—this project is not about saving ourselves financially.
It’s about building something meaningful for our children and future generations.
Which brings us to…
6. Why crowdfunding actually makes sense
Building in the mountains is brutally expensive. Everything costs more. Materials. Labor. Transport. Time. Weather mistakes.
For most people, the options are:
Be very wealthy
Go deeply into debt
We chose a third path: tell the story honestly and invite people in.
Crowdfunding lets us build responsibly without betting our family’s future on massive debt. It’s not the easy way—but it’s the right one for us.
7. We already bought the “expensive stuff”
Another thing that didn’t come across on camera: we’re not starting from zero.
We already own:
Commercial stoves
Professional cookware
Tour vehicles
Groomers
Core operational equipment
What we don’t have yet are the buildings themselves. Ironically, the simplest-looking part is the hardest to fund in remote terrain.
8. This isn’t the middle of nowhere
The show focused (understandably) on our immediate location. What it didn’t show is the ecosystem around us:
Philipsburg, Montana—a real destination town
Collaboration and subcontracting opportunities with places like The Ranch at Rock Creek
Discovery Ski Area, which we can literally see from our property—and where Alayah works as a ski instructor
Elev8150 isn’t isolated. It’s connected.
9. Opportunity, Not Obligation
Brandon grew up on a farm in Illinois, where land and work are passed down for generations. That’s not unusual—it’s one of the oldest human traditions there is.
This isn’t about grooming our kids.
It’s about offering them choice, skills, land, and responsibility.
What they do with that is up to them.
10. About Alisa’s eyes (yes, people noticed)
Alisa looks worried sometimes because she is.
In the last year alone, Brandon has gone through:
A full knee replacement
Complications from surgery
Dental issues triggered during recovery
Significant lost time while healing
And now faces the possibility of shoulder surgeries
At the same time, we’re watching friends Brandon’s age pass away around us.
There’s another layer to this that isn’t visible on camera.
Alisa learned very young that time is not guaranteed. Both of her parents passed away early in life. Her mother—beautiful, vibrant, and once Miss Texas—passed away at roughly the same age Brandon is now.
So when Alisa looks concerned, it isn’t abstract worry. It’s lived experience.
Getting older is slowing us down—and honestly, it makes us angry.
Not bitter. Just urgent.
Urgent to finish what we started.
Urgent to build something that matters.
And at the same time, Brandon and Alisa are cherishing the time they have left—choosing presence, purpose, and each other, even as they push forward.
11. About the hair, the clothes, and the very obvious lack of “TV polish”
Yes—we noticed too.
And no, it wasn’t an oversight.
We made a very intentional decision not to dress up, get haircuts, shave, shop for new clothes, or “clean ourselves up” for television.
When most people are shown to the world, they glam up. Fresh hair. New outfits. A little polish. Maybe even an emergency spa appointment.
We did the opposite.
There were no last-minute hair color sessions. No wardrobe racks. No stylists hiding behind the camera. Just us, exactly as we live every single day when no one is watching.
Why? Because we didn’t want to perform a version of our lives—we wanted to invite people into the real one.
The truth is, everyone knows what they look like when their front door closes. This was us choosing to show that version. The unfiltered, practical, slightly dusty, occasionally exhausted version that actually builds things and lives outside.
It felt more intimate. More honest. More human.
And frankly, it aligned perfectly with who we are:
less is more, not keep up with the Kardashians.
If you recognized yourself in that—congratulations. You’re normal. So are we.
Final thought
A television episode can only show so much. Real life is longer, messier, funnier, scarier, and more meaningful than a clean edit allows.
If you watched the show and felt curious, inspired, confused, or skeptical—that’s fair.
We’d rather be understood than perfectly packaged.
And if “less is more” resonates with you, you’re probably our kind of people.
