Filming in the Lake District with Terry Abraham: Ready To Go

The next week I'll be in the Lake District making a backpacking film with Terry Abraham. The weather forecast looks good - we'll have to go back to do some filming in the rain! After the snow and storms we had to deal with when making The Cairngorms In Winter it'll be nice to have some warm sunny weather as well as a light pack and much less gear. I'm also looking forward to enjoying the Lakes landscape and some spectacular high level camps. Until last year I hadn't been backpacking in the Lakes for many years and I'd forgotten how good it can be. Now, due to Terry, I've been there twice recently. Once a year ago before the launch of The Cairngorms In Winter and once to film a winter camp for Terry's lates film Scafell Pike: Life of a Mountain.

Rattlesnakes & Bald Eagles: Pacific Crest Trail Book Update

Camp by a frozen Chicken Spring Lake in the High Sierra on the Pacific Crest Trail. Scan from Kodachrome 64 transparency.

Creative Scotland, the public body for the arts in Scotland, has rather plush modern offices in an old traditional building in the centre of Edinburgh. A few days ago I made my first visit here for a meeting with Bob Davidson of Sandstone Press and Heather Macpherson of Raspberry Creative Type to discuss the design and photographs for my book on the Pacific Crest Trail.

The meeting was productive and the book now has a cover and a shape and a size. I've almost finished writing it too but what's going to take time is the photographs. I had forgotten just how difficult it is dealing with slides rather than digital images. Just keeping track of them all and linking my scribbles on the slide mounts with the digital scans is proving quite hard, especially as these pictures are over 30 years old and I can't quite remember exactly what some of them show!. Pictures that look fine as transparencies don't necessarily scan that well either so images can only be selected after scans are made.

The result is that publication has been put back and Rattlesnakes and Bald Eagles won't now appear until October. I'm sure it'll be worth the wait!

Six Moon Designs Fusion 65 Review

On The Great Outdoors Challenge last month I used the new Six Moon Designs Fusion 65 pack. I've now reviewed it for The Great Outdoors. You can read my thoughts on the magazine website here.

My only real complaint about the pack is the colour. It's only available in gold and white. I prefer more subdued colours - and the bright white panels really mess with camera metering!

Indiegogo Project: Helvellyn with Mark Richards, a film by Terry Abraham.

Terry Abraham at work in the Lake District

Later this month I'll be starting to make another film with Terry Abraham about backpacking in the Lake District.

This isn't the only project Terry is working on however. He's also making a film with artist and writer Mark Richards about Helvellyn and is seeking funding for this through Indiegogo. You can see a teaser for the film on the Indiegogo page here (though those who've seen Terry's films won't be in doubt as to the quality of his work), along with more information.

I think this should be a great film. Please give Terry and Mark your support.

Kickstarter Project: Francis Tapon's Unseen Africa

Kickstarter and similar crowd funding resources are an excellent way for projects that aren't conventionally commercial to get off the ground. Kickstarter is how Terry Abraham funded The Cairngorms In Winter. Without the support of many people we couldn't have made that film.

One Kickstarter project currently seeking funds that looks very interesting and worthy of support is writer, explorer and long distance walker Francis Tapon's The Unseen Africa , which will be a TV series about Africa that looks at all those aspects of the continent that aren't usually covered, presenting a view of Africa far from the usual one of  'poverty, pestilence and pyramids'. Through Kickstarter Tapon hopes to raise the money to make a pilot episode to show what the series will be like. He is in Africa now. Here's a short taster


There will be an outdoor theme in the series as Tapon plans on climbing the highest peak in every one of the 54 African countries. (How many of the peaks can you name? I managed three - I really don't know much about Africa).

I think this project is worthy of support and I hope it goes ahead. Have a look at the Kickstarter page and see if you agree.

Summer Snow in the Cairngorms

Coire Lochan

Recently the Mountaineering Council of Scotland issued a warning about the amount of snow still lying in the Scottish hills. Whilst there is usually a little snow left in June this year there is far more than normal, the remnants of the extremely heavy snow falls of the last winter. Plateaus and ridges are mostly snow free and any patches can be easily circumvented. However many gullies, corries and steep north and east facing slopes still have much snow and some summer walking routes are still hazardous.

Coire an t-Sneachda

 

A few days ago I wandered into the Northern Cairngorms to see how much snow remained. Initially I went into Coire an t-Sneachda where there was much snow in the gullies and on the headwall. The Goat Track, an excellent steep route up the back of the corrie, was still mostly buried. I wouldn’t risk it without an ice axe at present.

Coire Lochan 'glacier'

Cairngorm iceberg

 

Next I had a look into Coire Lochain and was astonished. The west wall of the corrie was one huge sheet of snow that ran right down into the lochan itself. Here the end of the snow fractured, calving off small icebergs that floated in the water. A couple were camped nearby, giving scale to the scene. This is a splendid camp site at any time. In these conditions it was spectacular and I envied them. Beyond the lochan the cliffs at the head of the corrie were still streaked with snow whilst broken and cracked deep drifts lay on the notoriously avalanche-prone Great Slab.

The Cairn Lochan cliffs

 

Picking out the shortest section of snow high on the west wall of the corrie I climbed the steep wet and slippery grassy slopes below it and then kicked steps up to the top. The snow was surprisingly hard and certainly a test for my trail shoes. It was only a hundred feet or so but my toes were sore by the time I’d climbed it. Continuing on to Cairn Lochan itself there were dramatic views down the cliffs to the tiny lochan far below. The gullies were still packed with snow – I estimated the top of the drifts as 10-15 feet deep – but this had peeled away from the top of the rocks. Looking across the Cairngorm Plateau I could see many big snowfields but nothing that would impede summer walkers. I didn’t cross snow once as I traversed Cairn Lochan and Stob Coire an t-Sneachda before descending down the Fiacaill a’Choire Chais.

Cairn Lochan

Snow in a gully on Cairn Lochan

TGO Challenge 14 Photo Gallery: Across the Scottish Highlands from Plockton to Stonehaven

Day 8. Braeriach on a sunny and very windy day. 

The weather on my 15th TGO Challenge crossing of the Scottish Highlands was good for walking with few very windy or really wet days but not so good for photography as many days were overcast with flat light. The photo above was taken on one of the few sunny days. However it was also one of the windiest days of the whole walk, making photography extremely difficult - sometimes just staying on my feet was hard enough. I had to lie down to take this photo.

Day 1. Tony Hobbs by the sea, Plockton

Day 2. Morning at the first camp in Glen Elchaig

 

Day 2. The Falls of Glomach

Day 2. Tony Hobbs & the Falls of Glomach

Day 2. Ford in Gleann Gaorsaic

 

Day 3. Glen Affric

 

Day 3. Beautiful old birch woods above Cougie

Day 5. Ramsons (wild garlic) in a wood outside Fort Augustus

  

Day 5. Challenger gathering in Glen Doe

Day 5 Camp by the Crom Allt on the Monadh Liath

Day 7. Challengers resting in Kingussie

Day 8. Camp by the Allt Clais an t-Sobhail after the very windy crossing of the Moine Mhor

Day 9. Keeping warm and dry at the camp by the Allt Clais an t-Sobhail

Day 9. View down the River Dee from the Devil's Point - the best view of a cloudy wet day. I also climbed Sgor an Lochain Uaine and Cairn Toul but they were in dense mist.

Day 12. Mount Keen from Glen Tanar.

Day 13. Clachnaben from Fetteresso Forest