Ben Page set off on a round the world trip from our Premier Dealer, Blazing Saddles, in 2014. He’s now back home in Yorkshire and planning how to tell the stories he’s gathered. His film, The Frozen Road, tells the story of the last leg of his American trip, through the frozen north of Canada to the Arctic Circle.
He shot the whole thing himself, and it’s worth watching to appreciate the effort he’s gone to to make it a cinematic experience. If you’ve ever tried to shoot a few clips of yourself on the trail, you’ll know the level of faff that’s involved in trotting back and forth up the trail to place the camera, ride past, stop, check the shot, maybe ride it again, move on…and repeat for the next three second clip. Add to that he bothers to get great big wide panoramic shots while pushing his way through knee deep snow after a few days of pushing, and it makes for some pretty impressive viewing.
It’s also refreshing that it isn’t just an ego fest, or a sanitised ‘adventure is great’ tale. There’s a bit of mild peril, there’s a bit of soul searching, and there’s fair dose of suffering. It’s not necessarily a film that makes you want to head straight out and find adventure – you’ll be giving it a bit of thought first.
We managed to catch up with Ben at Singletrack Towers to chat about about how he made the film and what he’s planning next.
And now, sit back and enjoy the film. You can watch it for free here on Vimeo, or if you want to download it you can pay a fee of your choice on PayPal here, which will help Ben to cover the costs of making this film and hopefully turning the rest of his trip into another tale we can enjoy from the comfort of our sofa.
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Awesome. Loved the film.
Brilliant….a few good Jack London quotes there. Looking forward to seeing and hearing about the rest of the trip. Can’t recall who said this but “you won’t really be able to achieve your best until you really know (and accept) your weaknesses” All the best Ben.
Loved that. Looking forward to more, really shows the highs and lows. Think i would have been out of there at the sound of wolves, fair play Ben, good luck with the rest trip.
If you enjoyed that it’s worth watching Ben’s other films from his journey, all on his Vimeo site: https://vimeo.com/benpagefilms
Watching them I’m torn between ‘dammit, why haven’t I done that’ and ‘phew, thank god I haven’t done that’.
Out in the frozen wilderness on a bike on your own ,have to say massive respect to Ben for that.how did he not get lost? The sheer aloneness of that would test anyone.keep calm and carry on ,easier said then done.
Superb!