The Cairngorms In Winter Released Into The Wild - & A First Review

Terry Abraham on Mullach Clach a'Bhlair at dusk

Terry Abraham's Cairngorms In Winter film has now been released to those who backed it on Kickstarter. The response has been excellent and gratifying, making us feel all the hard work was well worthwhile. Thanks everybody!

The first review copies have gone out too and the first review has appeared on My Outdoors.co.uk. I'm delighted to say that the reviewer is impressed with the film. I'm particularly pleased with this observation: 'It goes against the grain of reflecting man's use of the natural environment for his kicks and instead returns the majesty and grandeur of wilderness to centre stage, glorying not in what you can take out but in what you can take in.' 

The film will have its first public showing in Keswick on May 18 at Fishers. This is already sold out but two months later the film will on the big screen at the Rheged Centre from July 22nd to July 27th. I'll be at the showing on the 26th and Terry will be there on the 27th.

A heavily laden Terry Abraham on the Moine Mhor

Spring At Last? Big Thaw In The Cairngorms

The Cairngorms, May 6, 2pm.

Yesterday the temperatures finally began to rise, well into double figures Celsius by noon. I didn't light the stove for the first time in many weeks. Outside the air felt warm, the strong south-west wind not chilling the skin or cutting through clothing. Last night the temperature barely fell below +10C. Today the clouds lifted a little to reveal hills stripped of much of the snow. In fact it's going so fast you can almost see it shrinking. The air feels warm and heavy with moisture. Spring, it seems, is finally here.

Despite the warnth activity is as intense as ever on the bird feeders. The last few weeks have seen a change however. The various tits - great, blue and coal - are only occasional visitors now. Instead there are masses of chaffinches and siskins. The latter rarely appeared during the winter. Now there are regularly half a dozen and more. Only the red squirrels, great spotted woodpeckers and dunnocks are present in the same numbers. The only reason I can think for the change in the bird species is the availability of natural food. During the winter there would still have been seeds from the last summer and autumn but few insects for the tits. Now those seeds will be running out and this years are yet to appear so the bird feeders are more attractive to seed-eating birds. There are insects about though and so food for the tits. Today I saw the first big bumblebees on the flowering heathers. There's not yet the summer insect hum in the air but there are hints of it.

Siskin

To see more of the wildlife in my garden have a look at Terry Abraham's latest blog post about the trip he made last week for the final audio recordings for the Cairngorms In Winter film. Whilst here he couldn't resist filming the squirrels and birds and he's included a short video in his post.

The Cairngorms In Winter: Recording the Final Words

The Cairngorms from Aviemore, May 4, 2013

Fresh snow decorated the high tops of the Cairngorms, making them shine in the hazy sunshine. I was with Terry Abraham in Aviemore and we were looking at the mountains from the railway station bridge. Even down here in the town the air was chilly. Winter in the Cairngorms is not yet over. The Cairngorms In Winter film I’ve been making with Terry Abraham is finished though, bar the last tweaks and adding the last words from me, which we’d recorded the previous day.

The actual filming was finished over two weeks ago and Terry had spent the intervening time selecting from his work and putting the film together. Now with that done it just remained for me to record some words to go with some of the visuals, words covering everything from the formation of the Cairngorms to winter camping. We recorded these in the comfort of the living room with a DVD of the film playing on the TV so I could see what would be on the screen with my words. Outside the rain teemed down. The mountains were hidden in thick grey clouds. Occasionally bits of snow of snow were visible on the mountainsides as the ragged edges of the clouds lifted slightly. Up there on the tops it would be a white-out. It was a good day to be indoors. It was hard work though. We recorded six separate segments which meant working out what I would say, refining it, recording it and then recording it again and sometimes a third time as this was Terry’s last visit. Today’s work had to be right.

This was also the first time I’d seen the whole film from start to finish. Terry had sent me clips and sequences to view and comment on, not all of which made it to the final cut, but I hadn’t grasped just how these would fit together to make a film that flows and builds beautifully. Terry has done a great job. I just hope my words fit well enough.

I left Terry on the station waiting for his train south. My part in making the film was over.

In just over two weeks I’ll be in Keswick for the premiere (already sold out) and then on July 26^th I’ll be at the Rheged Centre, where the film will be shown all week.

Cairngorms In Winter on the Big Screen

Big Thaw, Filming Finished, Cairngorms In Winter

The Lairig Ghru, April 15

After weeks of freezing temperatures and easterly winds the weather changed a few days ago with rain and warm winds arriving from the south-west. Strong winds too, shaking the trees and scattering twigs and a few branches. With this sudden arrival of spring weather the thaw has been rapid with the lower hills quickly stripped of snow. The melt and the rain have brought flooding too, with streams bursting their banks and riverside meadows turning into shallow lakes. Higher up the deep snow is still there though brown patches of hillside are starting to appear even on the summits.

Meall a'Bhuachaille, April 15

Appropriately, as winter fades Terry Abraham and I had our last day of filming for the Cairngorms In Winter. The high level camps and the tours on skis and snowshoes were behind us already, what was left were interviews and more relaxed low level filming. We sat in the Glenmore Café while I flipped through some old photos (I found one from the Pennine Way in 1976!) and a few of my books and drank hot chocolate then bemused other customers as I was twice filmed walking in the door.

Then we went to Whitewell in Rothiemurchus Forest with its splendid view across the massed pines to the Northern Cairngorms. Here there is a real feel of the size of the woods and the scale of the mountains. In fact I think it’s one of the best viewpoints for this landscape yet it is relatively unknown and little-visited. I sat on a rock, stared at the view, wrote some notes and reflected on the winter’s filming - an exciting, surprising, sometimes arduous and always fascinating experience.

Cairn Gorm, April 15

Filming over we celebrated with Cairngorm Gold beer in the Cairngorm Hotel in Aviemore. Now Terry has to return home and undertake the work of editing and cutting and assembling all the shots for the final film. My part is over now, other than for some voice overs. Overall though the filming is complete, just as spring comes to the Cairngorms.

After the Storm, A Quiet Day: Cairngorms In Winter

 

Terry filming beside Loch Morlich

Following the excitement and effort of the stormy days when we failed to cross the Lairig Ghru (see last post) I had a much more relaxed day’s filming with Terry Abraham beside Loch Morlich. The clouds were still racing past high above and the highest tops were mostly hidden but down in the forest there was no more than a chill breeze. High up conditions were still severe though with signs announcing that the Cairngorm ski resort was closed again while snow ploughs tried to clear the access road.

Loch Morlich shimmering in the sun

Down at the loch sunshine came and went, though any heat was whipped away by the wind and the temperature remained below freezing. Oystercatchers flew low over the water piping loudly then ran along the golden sandy beach that curves round the head of the loch. There were pied wagtails too and mallard ducks out on the water. Across the loch the snow-covered hills of Meall a’Bhuachaille and Creagan Mor shone in the bright light.

Creagan Mor and Meall a'Bhuachaille

The wind was too noisy to record my voice out in the open so we retreated into the shelter of the pines with a view over the Allt Mor, the main feeder for the loch and here a slow, placid and dark stream very different from the raging mountain torrent it is for most of its length. Dippers bobbed on the branches of fallen trees out in the water. Under the trees the air was very cold and I was glad to finish the recording and finish and head off for a warming mug of hot chocolate in the nearby Glenmore Café from whose windows we watched chaffinches and coal tits and, just once, a crested tit feeding on the many peanut-covered tables. There were no red squirrels on show though, unlike the last time we had been here.

A welcome refuge

Warmed and refreshed we ended our quiet day at the far end of the loch filming the Cairngorms rising above the woods and water. 

Terry filming at the end of the day

Exclusive Clip: Cairngorms In Winter

Camp on Mullach Clach a'Bhlair, Terry preparing to film

Terry Abraham has been working on the Cairngorms In Winter film and has released a clip, which you can see on YouTube. It shows some of the filming we did on Mullach Clach a'Bhlair last week.

The Cairngorms In Winter - On Its Way!

Glorious Cairngorms

Camp on Mullach Clach a'Bhlair

Sometimes even familiar places can be breathtaking and so it has been in Glen Feshie and on the Moine Mhor over the last three days. I was in Glen Feshie for more work with Terry Abraham on the Cairngorms In Winter film. Terry had already been there for a couple of nights when I met him on a sunny day that down in the forest felt more like spring than winter. We wandered up the glen admiring the ancient pinewoods and the braided rushing river before camping in the forest between the steep craggy slopes of Creag na Gaibhre and Creag na Caillich.

Terry filming in Glen Feshie

Going down to the river for water we were surprised to see that the long thin waterfalls tumbling down Creag na Caillich were frozen into delicate traceries of silvery ice. There was thick ice on the edges of the river and round rocks out in the water too. At one point where the river slowed the ice had almost spread from bank to bank with just a narrow stream still running free. There was no feeling of spring here.

Terry photographing the icy River Feshie

That night we watched the stars come out in the black sky as the trees turned to silhouettes. Then the world lightened again as the moon, almost full, rose and cast pale shadows, turning the forest into a magical, mysterious wonderland. I fell asleep with the tent door wide open, wanting to remain in contact with this beautiful world. Dawn came in slowly, the sun touching the tops of the crags long before it reached the floor of the deep glen. The temperature was still below freezing – the overnight low had been -4ºC.

Forest camp

After a few hours filming and photographing we returned down the glen for the track up Mullach Clach a’Bhlair, the big hill on the south-west corner of the Moine Mhor plateau. The ascent began in the sunny warmth of the woods but finished in a strong cold wind on crusty snow. On the summit though the wind faded and we could look out across a huge panorama of the Highlands stretching out on all sides, a glorious vista. The light was sharp and clear, the sky an Alpine blue. We camped just below the summit. The situation was glorious and the evening light cast long shadows across the snow and picked out the shapes of the hills. The sunset was a red line across the western sky as the snow turned pink in the last rays of the sinking sun.

Terry in camp on Mullach Clach a'Bhlair

Again there was a wondrous starry sky, this time brilliant from horizon to horizon with no trees to break up the constellations. Then the moon rose, dark red as it crested the horizon then fading both in colour and, apparently, in size as it rose into the night. My tent door remained open again and I fell asleep watching the stars and the shimmering moonlight.

The moon setting over Creag Meagaidh

Although we were 600 metres higher than the camp in the forest and without the shelter of the trees the overnight low was again -4ºC. We were up before the dawn to watch the sky turn a brilliant red and orange over distant Lochnagar before the sun rose, turning the snow pink. Out to the north-west a pale moon sank slowly behind Creag Meagaidh with the air around it glowing a dull red.

Dawn over Lochnagar

There was no wind yet also no frost or condensation inside the tents. The air was dry. Soon we could feel the heat of the sun. We crossed the vast icy expanse of the Moine Mhor to the tiny cairn of Sgor Gaoith perched high above frozen Loch Einich with the massive bulk of Braeriach rising above it. The white rolling plateau really had a feel of the arctic. On Sgor Gaoith I left Terry, who was spending one more night in the hills, and descended back down from the snow into the glen, where the hot sun was blazing down.

The three days, and especially the two nights, had been majestic, awe-inspiring, tremendous – there are no superlatives adequate. Certainly this had been one of the finest trips of the many I have made in the Cairngorms.