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Lake Windermere and clear skies

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Finally finally got my hands and my eyes onto a real life copy of the most recent @SidetrackedMag and I’m feeling pretty proud. Ice Mile on the cover, eeeeeee! #adventurephotographer #adventurephotography pic.twitter.com/HK8DhPShlZ

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A few shots from a beautiful day out in the hills. Blue skies, low wind. More swimming than climbing but a rad day nonetheless. Got on lead, tried hard, and enjoyed using a teeny tiny camera to capture it all. 📸 @SonyAlpha RX100 VII from @mpbcom #adventurephotography pic.twitter.com/KpHE83ZxAq

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Completely overwhelmed that The Ice Mile has won the Silver (2nd) Best Film overall at @SheffieldAdv! It feels a little mind blowing that this little* passion project has had so much support from the swim community, from friends and strangers alike. #adventurefilm pic.twitter.com/eeT72N7qVN

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A lovely swim yesterday, definitely felt the cold from feeling pretty run down recently, but came back from the coast back to Fort William refreshed and calmer 😌 pic.twitter.com/RF2Wi9nudJ

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A very necessary day by the sea today. Some snow on the tops, small waves, a tiny bit of sun for a wee dip. Exactly what I needed to bring myself a bit of calm 🌊 pic.twitter.com/BlN0pc04OT

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Rachel Sarah on Instagram

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Wondering if winter is gone for good this time and

Wondering if winter is gone for good this time and thinking back to the other week when I took the teeny camera out and had to really, really try whilst climbing.

Going from never torquing my axe ever, to flailing up The Genie. Pulling on tiny holds and placing my feet on the most minuscule of edges, with only a few falls, which is good considering the fact I genuinely thought I would have to be hauled up the entire way.

@ryan_balharry cruised the lead as usual, the only falling he did was on the walk out as we staggered through deep drifting snow. A short(ish) and sweet day. Finding that it’s actually really fun to try hard and be a toprope toughgal in winter.

📸 me, @ryan_balharry and @michael.fleming on the @sonyalpha RX100 VII for @mpbcom

#scottishwinter #thegenie #scotlandclimbing #scottishwinterclimbing #scotlandwinter #scottishmixed #scottishmixedclimbing #ukclimbing #climbingphotography #adventurephotography

Finally finally finally got my hands and my eyes o

Finally finally finally got my hands and my eyes onto a real life copy of the most recent @sidetrackedmag and I’m feeling pretty proud. Ice Mile on the cover, eeeeeee! So I’m taking some space to celebrate today, amongst doing lots of paperwork and over-caffeinating myself.

Contrary to what it seems, I am definitely not out on the hill all of the time. I kind of realised that it was all I was posting and it doesn’t really reflect the reality of my day to day work and life at the moment. There’s lots of planning days around showering at the leisure centre, things that refuse to dry in the van, so much admin and paperwork, pitching, edits, going on all of time. Scenes like today, sat in the climbing wall cafe - tippy tapping away on my laptop - are waaaay more frequent than days out in the mountains chasing hares or climbing. This winter has particularly been a lot of unpaid freelance admin and it’s hit me hard, but its also been a reality check about what I need to do to grow as a business. So despite a fair few cries over the last couple of weeks, it’s going alright. And seeing this photo on the cover reminds me that I’m doing alright, too.

There’s also so many rad stories and photography in this issue. So excited to properly sit and read through. Cheers @sidetrackedmag ♥️

#freelancephotographer #freelancer #adventurephotography #adventurephotographer #femalefilmmaker #adventurefilmmaker #outdoorfilmmaker #femaleadventurefilmmaker #adventurecreative #peopleofadventure #staywild #shecreates #sidetrackedmag

Yesterday was more swimming than climbing, but als

Yesterday was more swimming than climbing, but also it was having far too much fun and giggling at belays, as well as experiencing hot aches in my toes so bad that I had to stop and seriously consider whether I was about to throw up mid climb.

We got shut down on Yukon Jack which was incredibly hard without ice, and so then I took the lead, heading instead up Hidden Chimney which had lovely gear but also felt quite hard for the grade, with lots of soft snow and not much to really swing into. It was a day trying to shake off some of the stress and be kinder to myself. Getting on lead and pushing past my comfort zone has really reminded me of what I am capable of when I’m not listening to that little self doubting internal voice.

Being freelance, and being a filmmaker has felt even harder than usual recently, and in the midst of projects going a bit tits up, and constant rejection emails, it’s been hard to convince myself that this is something I can keep up.

But, I am slowly but surely picking myself back off the floor, and am learning to lean on others so much more than I have in the past - looking toward new adventures and new projects with lots more positivity.

📸 shooting with the Sony RX100 for @mpbcom - falling in love with this little camera for days in the hills.

An absolutely surreal experience on Rannoch Moor w

An absolutely surreal experience on Rannoch Moor watching the lights dance. I’d settled down for bed, cosy in the duvet watching Drive to Survive in the van when I looked at my phone and had a combination of aurora alerts and frantic WhatsApp messages from @jonathandoylemedia telling me to go outside. I really almost did not get up. But I thought it was worth a look, so opened the van door and literally thought I was hallucinating.

I’ve spent the last day or so comparing my own aurora photography to everybody else’s. It’s weird, really - I think there’s this expectation of yourself as a photographer that you should get The Best Photo all of the time but honesty, that’s just so much unnecessary pressure to have on ourselves. And can warp our memories of how beautiful the experience was.

So now, I’ve let all that expectation go and I’ve been scrolling, reading and loving everybody else’s aurora stories, and soaking up all the beautiful photography and creativity. (Except I’m still incredibly jealous of whoever was out wild camping on top of Aonach Mor, screw you guys.)

Turns out I didn’t need to go to Iceland to see this magical show, and I’m just feeling more and more in love with Scotland the longer I am here.

🎥 @michael.fleming, taken with the Sony 14mm f1.8 from @mpbcom

#aurora #auroraborealis #aurorascotland #peopleofadventure #northernlights #northernlightsscotland #northernlightsphotos #staywild #astrophotography #astrophotographer #landscapephotography #auroratimelapse #scotlandtravel #scotlandshots #scotlandhighlands #scottishhighlands #rannochmoor #glencoe

On Friday I woke up far too early feeling really a

On Friday I woke up far too early feeling really anxious about heading into the hills. Partly because I was a bit intimidated by heading out with @ryan_balharry and @michael.fleming because I knew how fast they were on the uphill, and partly because I have some less then fond memories of Observatory Gully and I knew we’d be heading up high to find something to climb.

After a gentle push from @atlasmountaineering who appeared in the North Face car park, from seemingly nowhere, to tell me to get out of bed, we headed up that long, long path toward the CIC, and into Observatory, looking up a wall of fog and hoping there was something in.

Smiths looked back at us through the mist - solid, hero ice and Ryan breezing up on lead. Highlights/lowlights include: the morning photo of me looking absolutely livid that I’m heading out, Observatory being absolutely fine after all, Michael getting horrendous hot aches and forgetting how to human, lovely moments squeezed into a teeny ice cave mid route, and Ryan’s joy as he belayed us from the top.

I pulled over onto the plateau in golden hour with the sun on my face, Ryan absolutely beaming, and one of the most beautiful sunsets I’ve seen in Scotland, with views all around and no wind at all.

I keep telling myself that I’m on the fence about winter climbing. The approaches are tough and I always feel slow no matter how hard I try to keep up. But there’s still a pretty curious part of me that wants more, and the spindrift-y, windy, awful days are often a beauty in themselves, and all make sense when you have a day like this.

📸 @ryan_balharry + me

#winterclimbing #winter #bennevis #smithsroute #scottishwinterclimbing #scotlandwinterclimbing #choosemountains #climbing #iceclimbing #climbmore #lochaberclimbing #lochaber #scottishhighlands #peopleofadventure #lifeofadventure

Completely overwhelmed that The Ice Mile has won t

Completely overwhelmed that The Ice Mile has won the Silver (2nd) Best Film overall at @sheffieldadventure! Ahhhhhh!

It feels a little mind blowing that this little* passion project has had so much support from the swim community, from friends and strangers alike.

*It no longer feels little in the slightest, and all the cries during the edit, the dauntingly steep learning curve of ~how to make a film~, the uncertainty, and the rejection - it all has built into something quite beautiful for @becca.harvs and I, and everybody else who has been a part of it.

The Gold Best Film went to ‘Free to Run’ by @dreamlensmedia - it is an incredible film I first saw at @kendalmountainfestival, and then saw again last night at @mountainfestival, and it was almost better the second time watching! I couldn’t think of a more deserving grand prize.

It just feels so exciting to really feel like I’m finding my feet in this outdoor film world, and though festivals shouldn’t be the way we measure our success, they are a way to gauge how our work affects people, what the response is, and whether our films are rejected, selected, winning, they are always a huge source of inspiration (and sometimes devastation at how good everybody else’s films are).

Ice Mile is screening at SHAFF at the beginning of March, and down south at the @curzonclevedon at the end of March.

A film by @rachelsarahm
Additional camera by @michael.fleming @nightowl__creative and @jessielphoto
Featuring @becca.harvs @fenwickridley @swimwild_uk

#theicemilefilm #coldwaterswimming #coldwaterswim #swimming #iceswim #adventurefilm #adventurefilmmaking #shecreates #femalefilmmaker #femaleadventurefilmmaker

“So if I want to get the shot of the jeep crossi

“So if I want to get the shot of the jeep crossing the river… you’re gonna have to go over, drop me off, and leave me over here…”

Iceland feeling kind of wild. The plans for the first photo in my head was epic drone in settled snowy landscapes. A breeze. But no. It was just us in the Thórsmörk valley, limited visibility - driving through rivers and the snow and wind coming thick and fast. I’m sitting in this huge jeep, cosy. And then I come to the realisation that I’m going to have to go out in this to shoot the jeep from the outside.

I’ve found with most of my @flashpack shoots that the weather usually comes to thwart me at some point - rain and mist at Machu Picchu, swirling snow at the base of Fitz Roy, but Iceland was a whole other beast. The whole shoot was challenging from a “my lens is covered in snow… again”and “I’m getting battered by wind” kind of way. Shooting photo and video is a lot at the best of times, and I only do it for Flashpack because I like them. But anyway, I embraced it, and became a master at wiping my lenses every 2 seconds, and really capturing the feeling of the trip - wild, but beautifully so. With a few serene moments here and there.

#iceland #peopleofadventure #liveforthestory #sonyalpha #sonyalphafemale #adventurephotographer #outdoorphotographer #yourshotphotographer #staywild #landscapephotography #glacierphotography #femaleadventurephotographer

Winter, for me, has usually been about hibernation

Winter, for me, has usually been about hibernation - slowing down, being cosy. But that has shifted so much over the last few years, and as I embark on a pretty full-on winter shoot over this next month, I’m reminding myself that there’s absolutely space to do both. For the slow winter moments and for the harsh, brutal creativity in the cold that can often only be really appreciated after the moment has passed.

- a slightly different perspective on one of my favourite photography experiences to date. We were freezing, and it took me hours and hours to warm up after we got back inside, but we were so lucky to have the sky light up like this on the last night we were able to chase them.

#northernlights #aurora #auroraphotography #auroraiceland #icelandphotography #landscapephotography #icelandroadtrip #icelandadventure #auroraborealis #aurorahunting #northernlightsiceland #glacier #glacierlake #freelancephotography #freelancephotographer #outdoorphotographer #femalephotographer @sonyalphafemale #sonyalphafemale #yourshotphotographer

It’s been a few weeks of Scottish adventure, cur

It’s been a few weeks of Scottish adventure, curling up in the van - sometimes hiding from the -9 temps outside, working in cafes for hours and hours, and sometimes venturing out into the snow and reminding my legs what hills actually are.

These are some of my favourite photos from the last week - plodding walk-ins, exciting climbs of new grades, all the snack breaks, many shivering, miserable belays and not an alpine start in sight. As much as I was pretty grouchy in some of these moments, editing these photos is a reminder that the camera almost always enhances my experience outdoors, even if it adds a little extra weight to an already heavy bag.

P.s bonus shot of the boot that fell off a guys foot (mid-lead) from Mess of Pottage which we had to retrieve for his second to bring up 👀

#winterclimbing #scottishclimbing #scotlandclimbing #winterclimb #cairngorms #scottishclimb #adventurephotography #freelancephotographer #femalephotographer #shecreates #femaleadventurephotographer #cairngormclimbing #winterphotography #adventurephotography #yourshotphotographer #sonyalphafemale

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