t e r r y b n d

Camping on Yewbarrow, Lake District.

Well, I'm back home and settled after a fab week in the Lake District working on 'Life of a Mountain: Scafell Pike'. As usual, I timed my trip out just right to catch some fine weather for the North West of England. Much of the time was spent hiking and filming under clear blue skies and very warm temperatures with hardly a breeze.

Gear, gear, gear.....for sale!

As the title of this blogpost suggests ladies and gentleman, I'm having a wee gear clearout to raise funds for one of the documentaries I'm currently working on. Having spent so much time on the Cairngorms film with Chris Townsend of late, has lead me to cancel some offers of work - and now I'm a bit tight for cash. Other work I can be earning a crust from don't begin for a few more weeks yet....

Oh well. Hopefully there's something here some of you may wish to purchase.

Any questions or queries, feel free to ask. Or if you prefer, email me via the 'kontactr me' button to the right of this post in the sidebar.

All payments are to be made via PayPal, and any purchases made will be immediately dispatched and require a signature from yourself upon delivery. UK residents only.

All submitted prices below included postage and packaging.

Read on to see what's up for grabs.....

Now available digitally in full 1080HD to buy from Steep Edge

Chris and Mark enjoy a fine sunset from Bleaberry Fell, Lake District

The past few days have passed by in somewhat of a blur. First off, I enjoyed a couple of nights wild camping in the Lake District around Borrowdale - with a light pack for the first time in over a year - and then a couple more at the Keswick Mountain Festival where 'The Cairngorms in Winter with Chris Townsend' had it's public premier at George Fishers.

Fellow outdoors blogger Mark had kindly pledged funds to the film and part of his gifts entitlement entailed him spending a night out on the hills with Chris and myself. Sadly, this didn't come to fruition in the Cairngorms due to Chris requiring a stay in hospital. So to make up for it, we invited Mark to join us for the whole weekend in Keswick.

The two of us arrived in the Lake District to a mix of weather which proved to be generally favourable over the initial couple of days, while Chris would meet us on the last evening's camp before making our way to Keswick.

Chris retreats from a storm in the Lairig Ghru.

It's over. Thank goodness and just in the nick of time. Monday saw me finally complete 'The Cairngorms in Winter with Chris Townsend'. In truth I'm glad to see the back of the film. It had taken over my life!

Be it spending so much time up in the Cairngorms filming - almost to the point I felt like a tourist in my own hometown and the Cairngorms was my real residence - to working 18+ hour days at home editing, I'm relieved it's all done with.

The past week has been particularly tough. For example, I had finished editing the visuals for the film but had yet to complete all the sound mixing. The latter proved problematic in that some audio was poor and beyond repair while much of the narration I had only recorded the previous week with Chris wasn't satisfactory. Much of that comes down to the fact we've not done anything like this before, so it was a tremendously steep learning curve and one we had to get right as soon as possible.

Braeriach, Cairngorms National Park as seen from Aviemore train station.

I'm back home now after spending a couple of days with Chris Townsend at his home in the Cairngorms National Park, where we finished off much of the narration required for 'The Cairngorms in Winter' film we've been working on.

It's all I really need to do now to finish and sign the film off. Even so, it's not easy and will take me a couple of days at least. And I don't want to rush completing the final feature.

As a bit of info for TGO Challengers heading to Scotland shortly, take a look at the above photo. I captured this scene from the bridge adjacent to Aviemore railway station last Saturday morning - as you can see there's still quite a bit of snow up on the high ground. What condition the snow's in, I have no idea as I never set a foot up there over the two day visit.

Being shown on the largest cinema screen in the North West of England.

I'm now editing the final 25 minutes for 'The Cairngorms in Winter with Chris Townsend' and I'm pleased to say it's coming along nicely. Test audience feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, which has taken Chris and myself by surprise. I must say, I'm thrilled - the hard work appears to have paid off.

It's worth noting, that this project would never have got off the ground if it weren't for readers who visit this blog and moreover all those who kindly backed the film via Kickstarter!

Before I sign off and continue finishing off the film, I thought you might like to see the above picture.

It's all a bit scary for me, but the Cairngorms project will be shown on the big screen in the Rheged Centre in Cumbria. If this interests you, I believe tickets will be available from Monday afternoon. Incidentally, tickets for the public premier at George Fishers in Keswick on the 18th May have sold out. For those who backed the feature on Kickstarter, they of course will receive their copy before any of the above (and have been duly notified via updates).

I will get round to blogging about the recent trips soon, but my time is currently being spent completing the film. The clock is ticking after all!

Anyway, I'll blog about my exploits up in the Cairngorms in the coming days ahead. In the meantime, you might like this short video I captured on my mobile phone, featuring me stuck in a whiteout on Moine Mhor.

It wasn't the worst I encountered, I'll have to admit (that came the following day and visibility was less than 6 feet!) but it does give a flavour of some of the conditions I encountered while filming on this project.

As it transpired, the whiteout in this short video didn't clear for another 2 days which was rather annoying. Having to contend with varying types of snow to walk on, drifts deeper than I am tall and always being concious of avalanche risks near to where I was exploring, made for a tiring and morale sapping few days.