What would you like to see?

I greatly enjoyed making The Pinnacle last year and the film has had such a great reception from the climbing community. Therefore I would love to make another historical mountaineering documentary, the questions is what character or story from mountaineering history would you like to see next?

Jimmy Marshall - The 'star' of The Pinnacle (Image Copyright Jimmy Marshall)

Please add your suggestions in the comments below… free HD Download to the best suggestion.

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The Pinnacle - HD Download now Available

Dave MacLeod topping out on Point Five Gully on Ben Nevis

The HD download of our latest film is now available from hotaches.com.

The download comes bundled with three extra films:

Don't Die
This gripping short film tells the story of Dave MacLeod's first ascent of one of the hardest winter routes in the world, 'Don't Die of Ignorance' XI,11. Produced & directed by Joe French and John Sutherland of Heatherhat Productions.

The Architect - People's Choice Award - Edinburgh Mountain Film Festival
One of the great pioneers of Scottish mountaineering, Jimmy Marshall, reflects on a lifetime of climbing in Scotland. His soulful words accompany stunning footage of the routes which Marshall first climbed on Ben Nevis 50 years ago.

Q&A
Q&A with Jimmy Marshall, Dave MacLeod & Andy Turner, recorded at the Fort William Mountain Film Festival.

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'The Pinnacle' Trailer

Here's the new trailer for 'The Pinnacle' with music by Sam Hurt & Andrew Hunter.

Thanks to David Jinks for his work distilling 62 mins of film down to 90 seconds.

Also thank you to everyone who voted at the Kendal Mountain Film Festival to give the film the People's Choice Award and to everyone at the Dundee Mountain Film Festival who also awarded the film People's Choice... I'm so pleased that folk are enjoying the film.

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'The Pinnacle' - World Premiere & Advance Orders

The Pinnacle Film Poster

The World premiere of 'The Pinnacle' will take place 2 weeks today (Friday 19th Nov) at the Kendal Mountain Film Festival. Dave MacLeod and Andy Turner will be there to take questions after the film. Details and tickets can be found on the Kendal Mountain Film Festival website.

DVD - Click to read cover

The first batch of DVDs are currently being manufactured and are available to order in advance from the Hot Aches website. DVDs will be shipped first class on Monday 22nd November.

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‘The Architect’ wins People’s Choice at Edinburgh

I had a great weekend at the EMFF; this festival gets better every time. Now in its 8th year the EMFF provided some great films and speakers. I managed to catch most of the sessions and I came away really inspired, both by the adventure and by some of the filmmaking. My new short film, ‘The Architect’, had its first outing to a full house of 450 on the Saturday night. I was very pleased with the reception the film received and delighted that it won the People's Choice Award. Thank you to everyone who came along on Saturday.

The film will be released as an extra on my new DVD ‘The Pinnacle’ which will be on sale here from 22^nd November.

My favourite film of the weekend was definitely ‘Solo - Alone at Sea’. If you get a chance to see this I would highly recommend it. Personally, I think that for a film to be great it has to make you laugh and make you cry. Many films can do one or the other, but when a film hits both ends of the emotional spectrum you know it has something special. Over the last 6 years of attending mountain film festivals there have been a handful of films which have passed this test and this was one of them.

The jury seemed to agreed with me about 'Solo' and awarded it the 'Best Film Award'. The 'Best Climbing Film' award went to Alastair Lee's big walling epic, 'The Asgard Project'.

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'The Architect' Preview Clip [HD]

Andy Turner enjoying the spin drift on Point Five Gully

I've add a short preview clip of 'The Architect' to the Hot Aches Facebook page, you can watch it here.

Edinburgh Mountain Film Festival 2010

Since I made my first film in 2004 the Edinburgh Mountain Film Festival has heralded the start of the film festival season. Over the years the EMFF has hosted the world premieres of several of my films: Fools With Tools (2004), Cavewoman (2005), E11 (2006), Committed (2007), Grit Kids (2008) and Single-Handed (2009). This year is no exception, with the world premier of one of my new films 'The Architect':


The Architect (2010) HD 16 mins
One of the great pioneers of Scottish mountaineering, Jimmy Marshall, reflects on a lifetime of climbing in Scotland. His soulful words accompany stunning footage of Dave MacLeod and Andy Turner enjoying the routes which Marshall first climbed with his friend Robin Smith on Ben Nevis 50 years ago.


The film is playing on the Saturday night (23rd October), full details can be found on the EMFF website.

"Climbers I've Shot and Some I'd Like to Shoot!"

Pic Adrian Trendall

This year at the EMFF, I've also been asked to give a presentation at the Saturday afternoon 'Climbers Session'. I'm preparing a lighthearted look through the Hot Aches archives and I will be showing some classic clips of climbers I've worked with over the years. Many of these clips have never been released, so I hope it will show a little of what goes on in the background during the making of climbing films.

The EMFF is always a great event but this year I think the film program is stronger then ever before. The EMFF party is FREE this year so don't miss out on what is always a great social event on the Edinburgh climbing scene.

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