Life of a Mountain: Blencathra – a film by Terry Abraham.

It is unusual for a DVD to be issued before a TV series, but this is the case with this magnificent film about Blencathra which is subtitled A Year in the Life of the People’s Mountain. A shortened version of the film is due to be shown on the BBC towards the end of the year. Whilst this is not the most climbed mountain in the Lake District (Helvellyn which is to be filmed by Terry next year holds this distinction) it is however, certainly in the top five as far as ascents by the public are concerned.

Alfred Wainwright, the Lakeland guidebook writer, devoted more pages – thirty-six – to this particular mountain than to any other in his series of seven pictorial guides to the Lakeland fells. And it is has a stunning southern profile, easily recognisable on the right hand side as one motors towards Keswick from the M6 at Penrith.

In the DVD a number of Lake District personalities are featured, David Powell-Thompson, one of the Lake District mountain guides who introduces the film, Mountaineer Alan Hinkes, Fellrunner Steve Birkinshaw, Broadcaster and Journalist Stuart Maconie and Eric Robson, chairman of the Lake District Tourist Board and of the Wainwright Society. I particularly liked the ascent of Sharp Edge by Stuart (one of half a dozen routes of ascent of Blencathra), and the fact he found it quite hairy; something I also did forty years ago on my first ascent by this particular exposed route. There are also contributions from the warden of the Skiddaw Hause Youth Hostel, the project manager for Fix the Fells, the manager of the Blencathra Field Studies Centre and also local people from the village of Threlkeld.

Stunning is a word that is often overused but not so in this case. The photography is just that and Terry has spent hours both on the mountain and its hinterland waiting patiently for the right light and conditions. And all was not calm during the filming as Terry was subjected to Storm Desmond at the end of 2015 and the devastation that was created in Threlkeld and Keswick, the neighbouring village and town below Blencathra’s slopes.

As with his previous award winning film about Scafell Pike, and as the sub-title suggests, the mountain has been filmed in all four seasons, different weather conditions, and at different times of day to show the changes occurring throughout the year.

The film is greatly enhanced by the background music of Freddiehangoler and the vocals of Lee Maddison which add to what is already a magnificent film. The film lasts for two hours but the views and subject matter are so engrossing that the time passes extremely quickly.

The DVD (which is also on Blu-ray) is available from Striding Edge Productions at www.stridingedge.com or can be ordered by phone on 01946-726090.

by John Burland