30 March 2012

Into The Wild

Gold wire-rimmed P3 glasses at Mt. Shasta long ago, 1950.

It is not supposed to be easy, that is the whole point!

Hand-tinted glass lantern slides, circa 1937, of mountaineers in camp during the ascent of Mount Logan, Yukon (above), and mountaineers and serac at the end of a glacier in the Canadian Rockies (below).


At the base of the mountain, 1948.

Approaching Ben Lui in the Highlands of Scotland, Easter, 1965.

The "Brocken Spectre" meteorological optical phenomena at Ben Nevis, the highest mountain in the British Isles, 1968. The "spectre" appears when the sun shines from behind the observer, who is looking down from a ridge or peak into mist or fog.

...I had a dream which both frightened and encouraged me. It was night in some unknown place, and I was making slow and painful headway against a mighty wind. Dense fog was flying along everywhere. I had my hands cupped around a tiny light which threatened to go out at any moment... Suddenly I had the feeling that something was coming up behind me. I looked back, and saw a gigantic black figure following me... When I awoke I realized at once that the figure was a "specter of the Brocken," my own shadow on the swirling mists, brought into being by the little light I was carrying.