Terry Abraham's stunning film chronicling a year in the life of Scafell Pike is to be shown on the BBC, with a cameo from the BMC.

Filmed, edited and produced by Terry Abraham, the film about England's highest mountain received financial support from the BMC and features hill walking officer Carey Davies discussing visitor pressure on the mountain and donations made to path repairs by the BMC's Access and Conservation Trust.

A self-taught auteur who took to filmmaking after being made redundant from an IT role, Terry built up a significant following by blogging, making short videos for Youtube and tweeting prolifically.

His projects soon became more ambitious, making his first feature-length film, 'The Cairngorms in Winter with Chris Townsend', in 2013. It won heaps of praise from outdoor enthusiasts and became the most downloaded film on outdoor film site Steep Edge.

His Scafell Pike film was an even bigger undertaking. It involved him setting out on countless forays into England's crowning massif, lugging heavy camera equipment and wild camping for days at a time to get the best shots and sequences.

Terry had a few lifts around Wasdale from local contacts and friends, but captured every shot in the film himself, with no supporting crew.

He has funded his films in part by attracting commercial sponsors, but also by attracting thousands of individual donations through websites like Indiegogo.

“I’ll be the first to admit that after just a few weeks I wondered if I’d ever complete the project", Terry said.

“Technically producing the film was a steep learning curve to say the least, but more than anything having to camp out for days on end chasing those special scenes on video proved to be extremely difficult. In retrospect, I think I was absolutely nuts to set out and produce the feature, especially on my own.

“All said and done, the experience has proved life-changing for me on so many levels. Be it the close friends I’ve made in the Wasdale area or filmmaking in general."

The documentary follows the seasons on the mountain from spring lambs through to winter snows, as well as examining and celebrating the remarkable cultural life of the surrounding valleys, particularly Wasdale.

It contains interviews with local authors and broadcasters such as David Powell-Thompson, Eric Robson and Mark Richards along with mountaineer Alan Hinkes, fellrunner and local farmer Joss Naylor, outdoor writer and photographer Chris Townsend and Wasdale Mountain Rescue Team.

The 60-minute abridged version of the film will be screened at 9pm on BBC Four next Wednesday, 14 January. It will also be available on the BBC iPlayer after its broadcast.

We want to say a big thanks to every BMC member who continues to support us through the Coronavirus crisis.

From weekly Facebook Lives and GB Climbing home training videos, to our access team working to re-open the crags and fight for your mountain access, we couldn’t do it without you.

Did you know that we've launched a U27 membership offer for just £1.50 / month? And with full membership from £2.50 / month, it's never been easier to join and support our work: 

https://www.thebmc.co.uk/join-the-bmc-for-1-month-U27-membership

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