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Today was about moving fast and light in the mountains with a camera. 85 members of Warner Music UK had chosen to attempt the Buttermere 6 Peaks as a fundraiser for charity and they'd assembled a small media team to document their efforts. With the group quickly splitting into 6 different teams, with their guides from Activius, it took bit of local knowledge, a few short cuts and a lot of hard running to capture their experiences.
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It's been over two years in the making but finally one of ITVs Countrywise's most ambitious shoots is hitting our screens. We worked with Shiver Productions / ITV to provide location consultancy and recces, risk assessments, camera location recce, mountain safety, equipment porterage, technical rigging, talent safety and on camera guiding to get presenter Ben Fogle and a film crew to the top of Pillar Rock in the remore Ennerdale. We climbed the historical Old West Route by which the inaccesable summit of High Man was first ascended.
Countrywise Wild - ITV 9pm 17th August 2016  The best laid plans! Plan A was a quick trip to the Italian Dolomites, climb a 4000m peak with a couple of speed flyers (Aaron Durogati & Armin Holtze) and film them flying from the summit. All part of an ariel sequence for the BBCs Natural History Unit and their new series Planet Earth II. Hoiwever plan A didn't account for some very unseasonable weather and we spent the week chasing the conditions with little success.
Great wee video from Alan Kimber on Green Gully (IV 4) from back on the 10th March. We had the pleasure of following them up the route and sharing their belay on a couple of occasions. Stunning day on the Ben
A series of short sharp storms interspaced with high pressure provided us with the best and the worst of Scottish winter climbing this week. Rob and Jude made their annual pilgrimage north looking to climb some classics. Warm wet and very windy conditions were the order of the day on Monday. We got a great result making the trek up to Stob Coire Nan Lochan finding thin but good sticky ice in SC Gully (III 4). Sheltered in the gully while climbing we had a good battle getting back down the ridge as the wind speed rapidly rose. Back down at the road it was all a bit epic as my campervan had been moved two meters by a particularly big gust and the Glencoe Ski area reported a maximum of 138mph!
Tuesday was glorious with light winds and sunshine. Glovers Chimney (III 4) on the Ben gave us a bit of everything - ice, spindrift, neve, mixed climbing and an exposed finish to the summit for a spectacular sunset. The exit from Tower Gap provided the crux of the route with unhelpful snow on the ledges. The international team ahead of us had a good battle on this before exiting left up the bypass chimney The next two days were characterised by reasonable conditions early morning and late evening with the bulk of the day giving us a couple of violent storms. We took the oppurtunity to test our waterproofs and look at the technical skills of mixed climbing, stance management, escaping the system and multi pitch abseils. Thursday we managed to sneak up the Zig Zags to the summit of Grear Aonach in spring like conditions. It all came together on Friday with one of the best days of the season. Back up on the Ben we climbed Green Gully (IV 4) on hero neve. It was a bit soft for ice screws but climbing in sunglasses and a fleece made it a very pleasant experience. We were also following Alan Kimber who was mentoring a couple of MIC trainees which meant the belaying was very socialable if alittle cramped. A quick solo down No 4 Gully allowed me to retrieve my sunglasses which had been removed from my face by a chunk of ice and we wandered out under a starry sky. There was a strange buzzing heard from the vicinity of Ledge Route today! Rob Johnson getting some stunning footage with his drone; It's been a long time in production but will certainly be worth the wait. The BBC Natural History Unit's latest offering 'Life Story' is about to hit your screens. Obviously the highlight of the series will be the Barnacle Geese chicks in Greenland! (who also feature in the trailer). I was lucky enough to manage the safety side of things for the shoot back in 2012 with logistics being provided by Tangent Expeditions. 70m high loose basalt cliffs, helicopters, mosquitoes, musk ox and stunning scenery all made for a pretty special experience. Photos from the expedition on Flickr |
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