Review: DVD - Life of a Mountain Helvellyn

FOLLOWING on from the award winning films, Life of a Mountain Scafell Pike in 2015 and Life of a Mountain Blencathra in 2016, Terry Abraham started work on this third film in the Life of a Mountain trilogy. However, because he was also working on a film about the life and climbing exploits of Alan Hinkes, the first Briton to climb all 14 mountains over 8000 metres in height, and had also teamed up with Mountain Guide David Powell-Thompson on the Outlying Fells of Lakeland DVD which was reviewed in the paper in November plus the Lakeland Walks DVD again narrated and featuring David Powell-Thompson, this delayed production and completion of this film until this year. The Helvellyn film has just been released on DVD, four years after the Blencathra film was released. The film was supposed to have been shown on the large cinematic screen at Rheged near Penrith back in May and I had tickets booked to attend this. However, Covid restrictions put paid to this although Terry hopes that this can happen at some time in the future as his work greatly benefits from the wide panorama of cinema viewing. The film features a year in the life of this iconic mountain and the people who habit its slopes and valleys.

It is fitting that this third film in the Life of a Mountain trilogy is about Helvellyn and its environs as it is the third highest mountain in the Lake District at 3116 feet, only surpassed by Scafell Pike and Scafell, nine miles to the west. However, because of its much easier access from the Grasmere to Keswick A591 road to the west or from Patterdale village to the east, Helvellyn is the most climbed fell in the Lake District with several thousand visitors per annum. From the summit, over 100 other Lakeland fells can be seen including all the other three mountains over 3,000 feet in height – Scafell Pike, Scafell and Skiddaw.

In the film, Terry has a stellar cast of interviewees, ranging from broadcaster Julia Bradbury to mountaineer Simon Yates; outdoor adventurer and author Phoebe Smith to top fellrunner Ricky Lightfoot; meteorologist Peter Gibbs to author and broadcaster Stuart Maconie. As well as these interviewees, other topics covered in the film include Farming, Fell Ponies, Conservation, Wildlife including Badgers, Foxes and Squirrels, Mining, Lake Steamers, Mountain Biking and using the outdoors to promote mental health.

The filming is superb and Terry has used such techniques as time-lapse, slow motion, macro, slow pans, and drones to enhance his brilliant camera work. Some of the sunrise and sunset shots are amazing which have been achieved by Terry taking his film gear on to the mountain in all weathers and at all times of the day, before most people are awake and when most have gone to bed in an evening. Often he would resort to wild camping on the hills to capture some of these dawn and night-time shots. The film is supported by a soundtrack of music composed for the project by Freddiehangoler who provided the soundtrack for the previous two films. This is a superb film lasting nearly 2½ hours but is so absorbing that the time passes quickly and the viewer is transported to these high fells from the comfort of his or her armchair. thus bringing the outdoors indoors.

by John Burland