Adventure Camera Man

Keith Partridge produced the HARVEY Maps short film, The Adventure, which starred members of the team out and about in the Loch Lomond & The Trossachs National Park, showcasing the range of HARVEY maps being used by runners, walkers and bikers.

On a much larger scale, Keith finds himself filming on all continents. From the Eiger’s North Face and a toxic fume-filled Indonesian volcano, to hunting with eagles in Mongolia, and exploring the white-water caves of Papua New Guinea, Keith is actively pushing the limits of extreme filmmaking for television and cinema.

We were lucky enough to catch up with Keith in amongst his travels between the USA, Alaska and Columbia. So, make a cup of tea and read on to delve into the life of an Adventure Camera Man…

How did it all start? Was it your childhood dream to become an adventure cameraman?

Well, I’m not sure that anyone really knows what they want to do in their future lives. I certainly didn’t. But adventures exist all around us, no matter where. As a young lad, I would love to jump on my bike and explore the quiet countryside of North Norfolk; but I never dreamt that those times would lead to a life of filming adventures.

I was going to head to university to study geology after finishing school, but things didn’t work out. At the age of 18 I felt things crumble…. my exam results made for less than encouraging reading. The reason my studies had been such a failure is that I was spending all my time DJing, running a disco business, where me and my friend Simon had designed and built much of the gear, with help from our dads. Studying was far less fun. My other passion was in stills photography. On looking at the application form, with my extra-curricular activities I ticked all the BBC boxes and landed the job.

So, as a school-leaver, I began my career in film and television. I was soon seconded to the studios in Newcastle, where a fledgling interest in climbing grew into an all-consuming passion. The mountains were in such striking contrast to the flat, idyllic landscape in which I had grown up, and those peaks were now within easy reach. I was hooked.

A few weeks later the two of us were skiing and climbing on the 8500 sq km Vatnajökull Ice Cap. Actually, we spent much of the time sitting out the horrendous storms, entombed within our snow cave basecamp on the flanks of Iceland’s highest peak. Looking back, we were certainly stretched beyond our limits on that trip, but isn’t that the best kind of expedition? After all, true adventure is where the outcome is uncertain.

The night I returned to Newcastle I was heading to meet up with my old BBC colleagues and bumped into a producer, Richard Else, who I knew of but had never really had any dealings with before. He looked at my haggard face, wild, untamed hair, and sun-blistered lips. “I’d heard you’d left. What on earth have you been doing with yourself? By the way you look like ****!”

I told him of our expedition and literally his next sentence was to ask if I wanted to go film with him in the Himalaya that Autumn, with mountaineering legend Chris Bonington. I almost bit his hand off. From 1990 I haven’t really looked back.

When filming in remote and sometimes treacherous areas, how do you and your team work together to navigate and stay on track?

In many of the film locations we find ourselves in, the complexity of the terrain seems to outstrip the level to which the ground has been surveyed; this renders many of the available maps less than ideal. So, we definitely stick together, which is sometimes easier said than done, especially in dense rain-forest.

We also often rely upon local guides. In Papua New Guinea, tribesmen from the nearest village took us through the forest and helped porter a lot of our equipment for an exploratory caving expedition into the Mageni River Cave. They also helped us establish a base camp, before leaving us to the mercy of the dragon that inhabited the underground lair that we were to enter. It was my first caving expedition and it challenged me in ways I never thought possible.

Of course, modern devices also play their part. We are fortunate enough to have GPS, Google Earth and even mobile phones to help us find our way, although I must say that there is no real substitute for a decent paper map for planning, drawing on and providing an overall image of the ground. A paper map doesn’t run out of battery.

From the outside looking in, your work involves a lot of living life on the edge, sometimes literally. Do you find the work that you do is risky or dangerous?

I’m not going to lie, there is often risk on these filming adventures, but it is part and parcel of the game. Natural environments are infinitely more powerful than we will ever be and so it is best to respect where we are and just who we are. All of us have our physical, mental, and emotional limits, and, while it’s good to stretch them and reset where those limits are perceived to be, it’s also easy to push into that zone of misadventure.

Having said that, we try to minimise risks through having a solid team, through detailed planning, having the left equipment and through everyone having the ability to air their thoughts and concerns. Squirming through a lengthy ‘squeeze’ on an ice-caving trip with tottering boulders of an active volcanic crater beneath the chest and 180 feet of glacial ice above the helmet is not everyone’s cup of tea.

Who or what is your main inspiration? What keeps you coming back to take on new filming projects?

This boils down to two major things; being a part of a close-knit group of people all pulling in the same direction, and the fact that we live within an infinitely varied, wildly fascinating and spectacular planet. Each film project brings a set of unique and dynamic challenges, where creativity swirls with the physical, technical, environmental, and personal aspects of adventure.

You seem like you are always on the go with new projects constantly in the pipeline, so what do you do for your well-being?

I love being out on my road-bike cruising the quiet roads around Stirling and Perthshire. I suppose it takes me back to my childhood in Norfolk. I also love being out in the Highlands, walking, scrambling, climbing, mountain-biking, and skiing. It feels very different to when I’m working and it’s always best with family and friends, having a blether and a laugh.

You filmed the HARVEY Maps Adventure Film which was set in the Trossachs. What was your favourite moment when creating the film?

Well I suppose it has to be either hiking up to the beautiful summit of Ben A’an or getting our dynamic duo of mountain-bikers to make it through the ford. There were a number of ‘soggy’ failed attempts, but they weren’t about to give up.

Ben A’an, despite not being a particularly lofty summit, makes up for it with its spectacular views over Loch Katrine even on a grey and blustery day. Holly, Adam and Chris made light work of the ascent although discussions about who was perspiring the most did get a little hot under the collar.

It was really fun to make the map a character by embedding a 360 camera within its folds. I also wanted to use this kind of image trickery sparingly.

Out of everything you’ve accomplished so far, from delving into the depths of glaciers, to delivering an Olympic Gold Medal to the summit of Mount Everest, what would you say is your career highlight?

Career highlight? That’s tricky. There are so many memorable moments and highlights.

Certainly, the iconic ‘Touching the Void’. It’s a film that, as the specialist mountain cameraman, I’ve always been thrilled to have been involved with. Hunting with Golden Eagles in Mongolia, and the other stories for the BBC’s Human Planet series, were a privilege to shoot, and gave all of us windows into the lives of the most incredible people living in some of the harshest environments on Earth.

Then there was joining Steve Backshall’s expedition to Venezuela, where we attempted the first ascent of a big wall on one of the Tepuis mountains, followed by an exploratory caving mission, before abseiling the 1km high Angel Falls, the highest on Earth. It was pure adventure all the way.

Reaching the summit of Everest in 2012 was a challenge and I could add that getting back down was an even bigger one. Certainly memorable, that expedition needs a whole blog to itself.

Writing my book ‘The Adventure Game’ and seeing it launch at the Edinburgh International Book Festival was a thrill. There is something very special about walking past a bookshop window and seeing your professional life in print. I could go on!

Images © Keith Partridge