ALASTAIR Lee has suffered some tense moments in his adventure film-making career, but none can compare to the descent of a mountain in the Arctic when the weather turned.

Alastair, 41, from Salterforth in Pendle, had just finished filming the action film at Baffin Island. The two lead climbers decided to windsurf 1,000 metres down the mountain leaving the rest of the team to gather up the equipment and start the descent.

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“About half way down the weather turned on us and it started snowing,” says Alastair. “It was one of the most frightening experiences I’ve ever had. It was late summer, but we had been very unlucky. We’d had very harsh conditions that we weren’t really ready for and it was way colder than we were expecting.

“We were on the north face and there was literally about half an hour of sunlight at 5am. North facing, in the shade in the Arctic is grim. Just getting out of your sleeping bag is a big deal.

"You are living on portaledges which are strapped to the cliff face. It was cold, but snow on a rock face dealing with ropes and equipment makes it worse and once you get wet it’s very hard to stay warm. We had half a ton of bags to bring down the cliff face, there was a lot of loose rock and we were exhausted. We had been on the cliff face for 13 days. We just about got away with it. We were pretty shaken, but we survived.”

Indeed survival is a big part of what Alastair does and he likens his work to a military manoeuvre. It’s easy to see why there is very little competition in his line of work. The danger is, however, a calculated risk. Alastair was part of the first British team, led by well-known climber Leo Houlding, who took on a new route up the north east ridge of one of the world’s most demanding mountains, the Ulvetanna in Queen Maud Land, Antarctica, in December 2012.

“The danger is so in your face when you’re on a vertical piece of rock that’s 1,000 metres high. It’s hard to put across just how mind-blowing the exposure is and how vulnerable you feel when all you’ve got is a 10mm diameter rope to support you.

“But it’s not as foolhardy and crazy as it looks because we are experienced. Ulvetanna is the most stunning place. The mountain itself is 3,000 metres. It’s only been climbed a couple of times and we were the first British expedition to go to that area. It was just over a mile, which on a vertical scale is massive.

“We lived through very harsh conditions, but nobody got hurt and nobody got frostbite. We know how to eat and how to look after ourselves. It’s not for mad men. It’s about making the right decisions and looking after yourself. It’s not about pushing on and being a hero. That’s what Scott did and they all died. It’s about knowing when to stop.”

Alastair started his career as a landscape photographer, but his combined loves of climbing and photography found a new niche when the digital era opened up new frontiers.

“It changed the course of my life. I found out I was quite good at editing. I never intended becoming a film maker. I had a friend who worked at a production house in Manchester who showed me how an edit suite worked and a few days later I came out with a 20 minute film.”

His work with Leo Houlding has taken him to some of the most remote corners of the earth – including the Amazon, Greenland and Venezuela.

“These trips are life changing experiences,” says Alastair. “They are not holidays. The pictures look exotic and it’s very exciting, but it’s a lot of hard work. You’re away from home and your family for a long time and survival is the name of the game. A lot of the time there is little or no chance of rescue if something goes wrong. “ Alastair’s partner Elise, who is expecting their second child this Christmas, is pretty understanding.

“She is very supportive. She doesn’t say an awful lot about it. She understands it’s what I do, but it’s hard