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Rachel Sarah on Twitter

This looks so good 😍 twitter.com/Octopus_Books/…

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Can’t get through on the phone all week, and each time I try to do the e-portal it’s closed. Being poorly is worrying enough without being able to get any kind of follow up or support from your GP. The system is so so broken. pic.twitter.com/PT3NOJiATH

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Follow @rachelsarah_m

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Rachel Sarah on Instagram

rachelsarahm

Freelance filmmaker + photographer 🎥
Vegan 🌍 | always with a camera in hand

Capturing moments, most of the time, is a lot of p

Capturing moments, most of the time, is a lot of practice, patience, and real intention to find the perfect angles in a very short space of time. Especially when documenting moments that can’t be redone or posed. In this case I was blearily trying to shake the tiredness of a bad night’s sleep, squeezing myself into a wetsuit, stuffing my drone into a dry bag, and jumping into a kayak - so so hoping I’d get a good view, whilst the clouds swirl and obscured the mountains I’d been dying to see and capture. I caught up, hung back, filming and kayaking, then furiously kayaked ahead to find a spot to jump out of the kayak so I could launch the drone to try and get a shot that could turn out pretty rad.

What an absolute rush of joy when I found this perfect angle. If only they’d spaced themselves out a little more evenly 😉

- Shooting for @flashpack in Patagonia, Argentina

I often talk about the hard side of being freelanc

I often talk about the hard side of being freelance, and can find it really difficult to celebrate myself, my work, and my progression in this world. But today, I’m celebrating 🥳 . This time last year, like many people, I was coming out of lockdowns with very little work, wondering if I could sustain my career. I still sometimes wonder whether I can juggle commercial work and film projects in a sustainable way. Now, I’m so excited to say I’m booked up until October and, after months of rest and recovery from burnout, this year of work is really kicking off with the most exciting shoot of my life.

I’m currently writing from Patagonia, a place I’ve dreamed of for such a long time. And I honestly just can’t believe I’m here.

Thanks to @flashpack for asking me to be their lead shooter this year after being in Peru with them in 2019. Here’s to savouring this beautiful adventure and to more this summer. Hard work sometimes does pay off 🌞

A year ago, I began creating a documentary film wi

A year ago, I began creating a documentary film with @harvmania. She sent me a message after seeing the short film Drifting, and felt there was something about it (a feeling?), and wanted to make a swim film with me. As in, with me. Collaboratively - about some other swimmer.

But.. I completely misunderstood and thought she wanted me to make a film about her!

After getting onto zoom and talking, I immediately loved her energy and we didn’t even really say “yes let’s do this”, we just knew, and immediately and naturally began planning what this film could be.

In the space of this one call, we decided we would work on a long-term documentary about her ice mile training. I think I must have been so excited that she just never corrected me about her original intention to be the producer of this project and that her being in the film was not at all in the plan… and that’s how the ice mile was born.

(And I actually didn’t find out any of this until really recently!)

Well I’m really glad that I completely misunderstood and she never corrected me, all that time ago when I had no idea what an ice mile was. Because it’s been a year now - filming is wrapping up, and I have a wonderful, funny, and inspiring friend from all of this. And so much footage. And a craving for cold water.

Congratulations for completing your ice mile Becca ❄️ you so, so, so deserve it.

Over the last year I’ve dipped my toes into the

Over the last year I’ve dipped my toes into the world of outdoor swimming. Wetsuit firmly on and camera in hand. I used to think this part of the outdoor scene was all about solitude and experiences like these in the mountains. Slowness and stillness and cold water solving bodily aches and pains. Almost religious experiences in icy water. But I’ve found that there is such an aspect of fun and silliness, a whole community of wonderfully supportive people who chill out by lakes and lochs lidos and oceans eating cake and drinking winter spice - doing handstands in the water and not taking everything so seriously. Lots of expletives and laughing getting into baltic waters. It’s been refreshing. And I think it’s been a large part in why I’m trying not to take myself quite as seriously anymore, too.

Of course there is still beauty and stillness and seriousness, but that’s just a little part of it.

- stills of @harvmania and @oceanicwhitetipward from ice mile 🎥

“I’m feeling like a normal human being again.”

- I have been writing more, reading more, hiking and climbing more. Keeping my promise to myself to enjoy more days, rather than suffer through them - in a lot of ways. And the bluebird winter days up here have made that much easier recently.

Not every story is one of those “I got to the to

Not every story is one of those “I got to the top! It was hard! But I made it.” stories - quite often it’s about knowing when to stop, take stock, and sometimes, turning back. I’m definitely using Scottish winter as a metaphor here for my general life, but it feels really apt seeing fresh snowfall up there and knowing I’ll be up there soon again, deciding when it’s okay and safe to be up there, to keep going, and when to say no and turn back. It’s been a lot of that in my life recently - saying no to things and putting new boundaries in place. Doing things I want to do. In moderation. I completely burned out last year and it taught me a lot. Mainly - what’s the point?! Of continuing for the sake of continuing? When it’s sometimes safer and wiser to just stop, take a second, and think about the conditions around you, the pressure that’s making you feel like you have to keep going. When you really don’t have to.

- from a lemsip flask-sipping day in December where I simultaneously had a bad bad cold and managed to do my hip in (feeling about 80 years old typing that) and called it a day part way up the ridge. It’s the first time I had made that call myself. Just saying that I felt crummy and not up to it. And I headed down feeling really sad we didn’t make it to the top that day, but so, so sure it was the right decision. And the ridge will still be there, waiting for another day. To be enjoyed, not suffered 🌞

I have stopped *just* listening to my body on days

I have stopped *just* listening to my body on days like this. One thing I’ve only just got a handle on recently for mountain days is eating and drinking. I never eat breakfast at home, sometimes going until 3 or 4 without eating. And for ages and ages I brought this approach to mountain days too. Even work days in the mountains! So stupid! I’d set off and then a couple of hours later I’d end up totally exhausted and wondering why. The simplest and most obvious thing - and I ignored it. I used to think that ~listening to my body~ was what the outdoors was all about, but actually I’m realising more and more it’s not that at all - it’s more about eating when I don’t feel like it, because I need to. And drinking more, because I am usually letting myself in a state of perpetual dehydration because I don’t want the hassle of peeing. I mean, I’m still usually in a state of perpetual dehydration but at least now I pack more than enough snacks these days.

I’m enjoying this ever-learning, filled-with-mistakes process of being in the mountains and I’m excited to see how it develops month on month and year on year.

As the alarm goes off at 5:00am, every excuse not

As the alarm goes off at 5:00am, every excuse not to get up flashes across my mind, I’m hoping the forecast has changed for the worse and as I inevitably drag myself out from under the covers and start layering up, I’m thinking “why the fuck do I do this?”

But once I’m out there, up in the hills and pushing myself - actually I’m still thinking “why the fuck do I do this?!”

Kind of joking because behind the slightly dead eyes and the period cramps I’m feeling strong, and with each step I kick into ice I’m learning more and understanding more about my limits and fears. With a descent I didn’t really like I’m understanding how to mitigate the limits my injuries put upon me.

And maybe one day, I might just see the view from Ben Nevis (but it was not this day). Still laughing at how miserable I look here.

📸 @michael.fleming

#bennevis #climbing #scrambling #scottishwinter #highlandsofscotland #scottishclimbing #scotlandexplore #climbing #winterclimbing #gully #number3gully #stayandwander #thehighlands #peopleofadventure #femalefilmmaker #sheexplores #adventurephotography #remoteadventure #climbinglife

Out of the icy water and into icy gullies. I’v

Out of the icy water and into icy gullies.

I’ve been thinking a little bit about the relationship between shame and fitness and the outdoors recently. I’ve been editing an amazing campaign video for Jack Wolfskin where I ran around the Austrian mountains with some amazing women - and where @margreen_s talks about being more at ease in nature and feeling less like she has to prove herself as better, faster, stronger - and those words have really rang in my head in a really positive way over the last weeks. Feeling at ease with myself, and not there to prove anything. I like that way of being, and feeling.

Not all of us started winter climbing as a child or a teen (I mean, most of us didn’t let’s be real) - I’m personally finding my own way of being in the mountains, not pretending to know more than I do, happy to take things step by step. I’m prioritising finding balance with the weird non-routine of freelance work with life, family, friends, being in a relationship, and then having beautiful (and awful!) outdoor experiences of my own and also working on endurance to get to a point I’m happy to be. We all juggle a lot and it’s human to prioritise some things over others at different points in our lives.

Because sometimes I don’t need to be killing my calves in the mountains, sometimes I’m most joyful when I’m simply submerged in some icy water with my camera once in a while.

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