Mountain man Robert's life of adventure and photography

What began as a hobby quickly turned into an adrenaline-fuelled career for the 30-year-old, and his antics have taken him across the world, from the Rocky Mountains to the Himalayas, and often the French and Italian Alps.

Other news: Elderly man safe after Wigan house fire“In the past two years it’s grown and exploded into this awesome little job,” he said.

His commissions have included hair-raising shots of mountaineers and snowboarders, to some more unusual ideas.

“I was once asked to take a mattress up the Alps, to promote it by sleeping out on it and taking pictures,” Robert revealed.

But his action-packed shoots have landed him in some extremely dangerous situations, as Robert revealed.

“Earlier this year, I found myself in a bit of a tricky situation. We’d been out on a huge ski shoot, and the weather was closing in and we found ourselves traversing some quite steep slopes.

“The snow was funnelling down, and had accumulated where we were trying to descend.

“Just as I said ‘this is getting a bit dodgy’, this huge avalanche just came down in front of me and took me out.”

Robert was carried away by the snow and thrown into a tree, but was fortunately not dragged too far away, and was dug out by his friends after a short while.

“You always know there are risks out there,” he said.

“But as long as you are aware of them, and just try to mitigate them as much as possible, then you end up with some quite crazy stories.”

In 2012, he was diagnosed with thyroid cancer, which required Robert to have a full thyroidectomy, radiotherapy and a lifetime course of medication.

It was this close call that gave Robert the drive to change his life and achieve what he had always dreamed of, by becoming a professional photographer.

“That opened my eyes, and I realised I could do something more than sit in an office.

“I started cracking open my archives and sending them off, and set the ball rolling,” he said.

“It’s a lot of hard work, but if you really love it, keep pursuing, be really persistent and do anything to get the shot, and awesome opportunities will come from it.”

To find out more about Robert’s work, visit robertgrew.com