Silent ascent

Silent ascent. 2013.

The mountain rises like a blade, cutting straight into the sky while the lower ridgelines tumble away in textured steps. Fine cloud streaks echo the shape of the summit, so the whole scene feels like it is still moving upward even in a frozen moment. Harsh light carves detail into the snow and rock, showing every crease in the face of the range. It holds that feeling from the end of a long hike near Pokhara, when exhaustion drops away for a second and all that is left is thin air, silence, and the sense that the landscape has been watching people come and go for far longer than any trail has existed.

24 mm • f/2.0 • 1/8000 sec, ISO 100