Rime Ice in Summit 03
by Weston Westmoreland
Title
Rime Ice in Summit 03
Artist
Weston Westmoreland
Medium
Photograph - Photograph
Description
Rime ice on a summit register box. Closer detail crop.
This picture was taken around noon on a 9th of March. We had visited this same summit one year before and reached the peak with the sun shining from a winter-blue and windless sky, just on our T-shirts. The view was magnificent in every direction and we stayed a long while taking pictures and basking in the sun before starting back.
This second time, it took less than five minutes from the time the first of us peaked until the last of us left on the way back down. I cannot tell the temperature or the wind speed but it was surprisingly cold and windy. The difference in the last 30 meters of ascension was physically shocking. I removed just one glove to shoot some pictures and had to give up in under a minute because my hand was hurting so bad.
The two summit register boxes, the old house shaped one and the new mailbox type register, had been attached to a second concrete column after the first one was blown away by lightning.Opposite to what you would expect, the subzero wind freezes the mist on the windward side of the structure and builds up, creating this vertical rime ice crest against the wind.
Visibility was less than 20 yards so we missed the view, but in exchange we found this amazing and ephemeral surprise nature reserves only to the daring or lucky ignorant. In what so far had been an overcast and at times snowy morning, the sun popped up timidly just at the right time and with the right strength to create this special lighting atmosphere and this tiny spot of crisp detail, so deceitfully peaceful, in the middle of the frigid turmoil.
One of my favorite climbs ever and a picture I will cherish along with the friends with whom I shared the summit.
Weston Westmoreland.
Uploaded
March 9th, 2020
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