Alison Hargreaves and her son

[ssd]

Just watched the program about Alison Hargreaves and her family.

Brilliant and gut wrenching.

I've just watched this, and all I see is a little boy who wants his mummy. Poor, poor Tom. Jim Ballard, on the other hand, is indeed very difficult to warm to. When Kate phoned to say Tom was probably dead, I think Jim used every ounce of self-control he had, because he was being filmed - he handled it by turning his concentration onto Kate, asking her how she felt, telling her how to handle it etc. So that particular scene is difficult to judge. However, Tom's girlfriend mentioned that Tom couldn't 'read' people, and I do wonder if this was a trait inherited from his dad. They were all obsessed with mountains - found them easier to be with than people. Only Kate seemed to have any skills in terms of people. Haven't seen enough footage of Alison to know what she was like. But as I said, Tom was basically a little boy just desperate for his mum right up until he died. Utterly heartbreaking.

@trumpisagit

Also would the same be said of a man with small children who died climbing a mountain? I don't think so.

I would also say it of a father too.

This was such a hard watch, heartbreaking.

Alison's Last Mountain is on I player until 30th October, another difficult watch, Big Ibrahim is awesome! I hadn't realised that when Jim Ballard took the kids to K2 it was only 5 weeks after Alison died, he did seem incredibly cold. I also thought it was quite telling that you see Kate at 4 being comforted by other members of the group but not by her dad. Could be in the editing of course.

Both films really stayed with me.