Tales From the Road: What Happens When You Put the Yama Vans Marketing Team In a Gear Bus™

Whistler is a choose-your-own-adventure kind of place. First chair in the morning, trail ride by noon, paddleboard at sunset. The kind of destination that doesn't believe in doing just one thing.

Which made it the perfect backdrop for a van that doesn't either.‍

We took the Gear Bus™ west for a multi-day shoot - part brand mission, part logistical circus. The goal was to capture the van doing what it does best: carrying people, hauling gear, and keeping pace with Whistler's do-it-all energy.

What actually happened? That - plus a blur of long drives, more configuration swaps than we could count, last-minute weather pivots, frantic searches for a car wash with over 10 feet of clearance, and golden hour scrambles before the light slipped away. And at least 15 rounds of "where's the thing?"

It wasn't always smooth, but it was honest. And it proved exactly what this van was built for.

Here's what happened when we loaded the team, the gear, and a healthy dose of chaos - and pointed the nose toward the Sea to Sky.

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Haul It All (and Then Some)

Packing for a shoot like this means bringing a little bit of everything - and then a little bit more.

The Gear Bus™ left Yama HQ loaded with six rear seats, a full camp setup (chairs, tables, fire pit - the works), multiple sets of golf clubs, camera gear for behind-the-scenes content, and one four-legged Creative Director named Lani. Our Social Media Manager (and resident Whistler local) would meet us there, bringing paddleboards, bikes, and a few last minute additions. You'd expect things to get cramped fast...

But that's the beauty of this layout - you can bring it all without feeling like you're living in your gear pile. No backpacks had to be Tetrised into place, and we weren't climbing over duffels to get to toothbrushes. Okay, maybe once.

Even fully loaded, the van stayed relatively organized, accessible, and comfortable. Proof that good storage makes a long trip feel a lot shorter.

And yes, we did manage to find room for even more gear when our friends at RUX handed off a few of their signature storage pieces once we arrived in Whistler to help stage the van. Because apparently, we hadn't packed enough already.

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The Shoot

The next few days were a masterclass in rolling with it. The weather didn't always cooperate, the gear kept multiplying, and reconfiguring the van mid-shoot became a full-body workout. Good thing the Gear Bus™ is built to flex.

We turned it into a people-mover, a gear-hauler, a basecamp, and a lifestyle studio - sometimes all in the same hour. Seats popped out. Bikes and skis shuffled in. One minute it was hosting a production crew (shoutout to our friends at 2C Media), the next it was a cozy family camper for four. Modular, indeed.

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Our model family - two parents and two wildly committed kids - absolutely crushed it. Rain? No problem. Repeated takes of unloading hockey gear? Game faces on. The van became their home base for mountain biking along the Soo River, ski staging at Whistler Blackcomb (yes, in May - us Albertans were surprised), and lakeside downtime at Lilooet Lake. By the end of the day, the kiddos were in their PJs, tucked into the pop-top, pretending to be asleep so convincingly that the photographer wasn't totally sure they weren't. Academy-worthy stuff.

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Let's just say the Gear Bus™ didn't get a break and neither did we. Did we forget to eat for a whole day? No... but we may have subsisted almost entirely on protein bars and off-brand fuzzy peaches.

Lessons from the Road

• There's always room for one more thing. Paddleboards? Sure. Another tripod? Toss it in. A new RUX setup? Let's go. We learned this rule in our beloved marketing closet at Yama HQ, and it holds true in the Gear Bus™.
• Whistler weather has opinions. Bring layers. Maybe a tarp.
• Don't underestimate the power of a gas station breakfast sandwich. Green Lake Fuel Station, we see you.
• Take snacks. To bribe the kids after a long day. Okay, really, just for the marketing team.

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Wrapping Up at Backcountry

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After two days of location juggling, long hours, and wondering "why are these people staring at us?" - before remembering we were rolling around in a flashy, kitted-out van - we wrapped things up in Squamish with a pop-up at Backcountry Brewing.

Beers were poured, vans were toured, and we swapped road trip stories with fellow gearheads and (fingers crossed) a few future clients.

We raised a pint to the Gear Bus™, which handled every curveball we threw at it with style. Then we climbed back in for the long drive home, a little damp, a little tired, and a lot grateful.

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Real Talk

Was it the picture perfect shoot we'd mapped out? Not exactly, but we figured that would be the case. It was the realest kind of road trip - messy, magical, and full of wins. And in the end, that's exactly what we set out to capture.

The result was an awesome promo video, a full suite of photos, and a whole lot of moments that reminded us why we build these vans in the first place.

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