Acting
In October 2014, Steve Wakeford, a sports broadcast editor, fell 70 metres whilst climbing a mountain known as Les Petites Jorasses in the French Alps. It was a fall that required him to be airlifted out of the mountains suffering from a number of serious injuries and resulted in him being temporarily left in a wheelchair - he is lucky to be alive. At the start of a long journey of rehabilitation, he began to ask himself some serious questions - 'Regardless of injury or trauma, why are we drawn to the mountains in the first place? Is risk an essential part of what we do? Perhaps most importantly, why is it that I am planning to climb the same route from which I fell?'
On some peaks in 2003, the statistics are impressive. For the K2 dubbed "wild mountain" or "ruthless mountain", only 240 reached the summit and more than 60 perished in the ascent. An unimaginable rate of one death in four to survive. And these statistics are even worse At the start of the 2004 climbing season, only five talented and determined women had reached the 8,616-meter summit of K2, but only two made it out alive. , they too perished while climbing other peaks of 8000 meters, these five women all disappeared in the mountains.
The compelling story of 30-year-old climber Tom Ballard who disappeared on one of the Himalayas' most deadly mountains, Nanga Parbat, in February 2019. Tom was the son of mountaineer Alison Hargreaves, who perished on K2 in 1995. Mother and son, two of the greatest climbers of all time, died at almost the same age in neighbouring mountain ranges, both doing what they loved best. They now lie forever encased in the ice of two of the world’s highest mountains. Left behind to cope with the enduring tragedy are Tom’s sister, Kate, and their father, Jim.
Tom Ballard lives with his father James in a campsite in the Dolomites. Tom's mother, Alison Hargreaves died descending K2 when he was just 6 years old. Despite this, he never wanted to be anywhere other than in the mountains. His whole life is dedicated to climbing and his last goal is to solo the Six North Faces of the Alps in a single winter season. Nobody has achieved this before, and he wants to be the first. In a white van driven by James, Tom will travel through the Alps to make his dream come true.
