snow

Winterfell

A fresh bout of cold weather hit the Pacific Northwest after an unseasonably long warm winter. Temperatures dropped to freezing, and fresh snowfall added inches to the mountains. While I won't be able to enjoy the winter this year, I can always fall back on my archives of photos from past winters.

Here are a selected few from different Pacific Northwest locations. The reflections of trees in the first is my personal favorite of the three due to the abstract reflections on the wintry pond.

WA USA

Winter Wonderland

With 2024 just a month away, I decided to pencil some time to create a calendar that captured memorable places that I had the opportunity to explore over the last 12 months. They predominantly feature scenes from the Pacific Northwest which I am blessed to call as home. But it also includes many places off the beaten track for most, including the remote National Park of the American Samoa, the Caucasus mountains of Georgia and the swamps of Congaree.

And as I do every year, I want to dedicate this calendar to the incredible people at the Sierra Club Foundation which helps protect our public lands and waters. All proceeds will be donated to this organization so that their journey can continue. You can buy this calendar at this link.

This image that you see is the January photo of the calendar.

Tahoma State Forest
WA USA

Misty Mountains

Backpacking in Wrangell St. Elias late in the season has its risks: you are likely to be at the whim of the Pacific storms which can dump a lot of moisture. And the short summer here means that you are going to be cold, damp and miserable if you are not moving. And if you are really lucky, you are going to be frozen in the icy north too. My sojourn in the Park had all of these, and more. But it was still an amazing experience.

Waking up in the morning after a day of hiking in the cold miserable rain, I was treated to a landscape blanketed in snow, with the morning light slowly peering through. The warming sunlight led to fog forming and drifting over the rolling hills and snow-capped peaks all around. And for a while, the landscape glowed with alternating pastels of yellow and blue. This magical landscape was the only factor that helped me brave the freezing cold that morning.

Here I tried to capture one such scene from that delightful morning walk.

Wrangell St Elias National Park
AK USA

The Shimmer of Snow

The Shimmer of Snow.jpg

Have you ever stopped to notice the sheen of light on the undulating snow. It is not a sight one encounters everyday, and I happened to chance upon such a scene while slogging back towards the trailhead after a long day out in the snow. The light, filtered by a thin layer of clouds, was soft, and gently highlighted the smooth slopes. A plethora of tracks wound through this undisturbed snow, and yet, there were vast unspoilt patches remaining this late in the day.

A few groves of pines stood steadfast, acting as waypoints on this vast landscape of endless mountains. These framed this vast alpine scenery as I encountered it.

Mount Rainier National Park
WA USA

Summitting Success

I was struggling on my uphill ascent on the brilliantly white slopes of Mt Rainier. Even in early spring, it felt like on a hot and sultry midsummers day. But the views goaded me on: with each minute of climbing, the surround landscape opened up more and more. As I scouted for compositions, I noticed one hiker gazing at the vast cloudscape in front of him.

I will never get to find out what caused this hiker to power pose and gaze at the vast snowscape on the sunny slopes of Mount Rainier, but I believe that he was perhaps celebrating a triumph of having climbed up so far to enjoy this grand panorama. Who knows what other demons he he has been dealing with!

Mount Rainier National Park
WA USA

The Lone Monument

The landscape around me was a grand spectacle, towering red sandstone cliffs with a little dusting of snow rising from the dry desert landscape. Yet what the photo doesn't capture the communal culture of rural Morocco. Apart from the Bedouin herders, the villages and towns surrounded by a palm fringed desert are perhaps the only places of respite in the harsh landscape. And in these oases, you can find solace in the airy riads with a glass of ice-cold mint tea, and meet the community in the farmers markets that attract crowds for miles.

But the vast desert doesn't really give that away.

Dades Gorge
Morocco

Pillars of Winter

The winter leaves precious few opportunities to get out into the wilderness, especially during the severe winter storms which kicks avalanche dangers up a notch. This frozen lake is probably one of the few that are still accessible. But when I set out to this frozen lake under overcast conditions and gloomy skies, I wasn't expecting much. But nature can sometimes through a surprise.

The frozen lake was a white winter wonderland. Fresh snowfall had layered all the trees with a thick coating of wet snow, which were now drooping down with this new weight. And even though the granite peaks that normally tower over the frozen lake were obscured by a thick layer of clouds that absorbed all the color from the sky, the snowscape was pristine. And just as I was ready to turn around and head back, the low clouds slowly lifted, revealing the three pillars of rock so characteristic of this place.

Mt Baker Snoqualmie National Forest
WA USA

The Heart of the Pacific Northwest

Windswept snowscapes, cowering ice-rimed trees, undulating banks of snow, frozen lakes and gurgling streams, and in the distance, snow-capped volcanoes and ice-covered peaks jutting out of the craggy landscape of the cascades. Out in the hinterlands of the North Cascades, covering a vast swath of the Pacific Northwest, there lies hundreds of square miles of such undisturbed terrain, far out of the reach of many an explorer.

On a day like this, it is a landscape that evokes feelings of grandeur and majesty, like this scene from the far more accessible part of this rugged region. If even the fringes of such a place can evoke such emotion, I can only imagine what the rest can inspire.

Mt Baker Wilderness
WA USA

Winter Sunstar

I sat in the soft snow, powder up to my knees, watching the slow dance of sunrise. At first, it was the distant eastern horizon taking on a pale orange, its vibrancy kicking up a notch every minute. The silhouettes of the horizon were slowly coming to form, and I started to make out the jagged edges of the snow-capped Cascades.

The color started inching its way across the sky, reflecting first in the wispy Cirrus cloud formations. By then, the eastern horizon took on a vibrant yellow hue. The next few moments, I realized, would be the most crucial in what I had intended to capture: a sunstar

The sun finally broke through the hroizon, its light reflecting on the smooth bank of snow in front. Millions of tiny crystals of ice glistened, breathing in the first light of day. I bathed in the quiet stillness of this sunrise, a fleeting moment I froze in time.

Mount Rainier National Park
WA USA

Frozen Northwest

Winter in the PNW is rarely the stuff of dreams, unless one is a fan of cold dark dreariness alternated with miserable downpours and brief interludes of sun. But then again, there are brief intervals of time where sunlight meets the quiet still winter morning. And to be outside on a day, wandering amidsts snow-capped giants and snow-covered angels, is a moment to be treasured.

Tahoma State Forest

WA USAWinter in the PNW is rarely the stuff of dreams, unless one is a fan of cold dark dreariness alternated with miserable downpours and brief interludes of sun. But then again, there are brief intervals of time where sunlight meets the quiet still winter morning. And to be outside on a day, wandering amidsts snow-capped giants and snow-covered angels, is a moment to be treasured.

Tahoma State Forest
WA USA