Permanent Tourist

The personal website of Mark Howells-Mead

Posts about mountain

  • The Belt of Venus

    Before dawn in autumn and winter on a clear day, where there is moisture or minutely-fine dust in the air, early risers get to see the Belt of Venus. The pink colouration at around 10°-20° above the horizon is caused by the scattered, reflected light of the sun hitting minute dust particles in the west,…

  • Stac Pollaidh

    Hiking in the wild, remote and dramatic landscape of the north-west of Scotland last autumn.

  • Urat glacier in Swiss canton Bern

    Uratgletscher

    Dramatic, ice-clad peaks in the Swiss Bernese Oberland.

  • Oh, did I forget to mention? Jo and I walked up the biggest mountain in England in 2017.

  • Blofeld’s Lair from the air

    Filming and photographing at the mountain-top restaurant made famous by James Bond.

  • The sun shines through a small hole in the rock face of the Eiger at Grindelwald for a couple of minutes, twice every year.

  • Panoramic aerial photograph of the Tschingellochtighorn in Switzerland

    Obstinacy got me past a viewpoint I had aimed for and gave me the opportunity to capture a wonderfully dramatic alternative image.

  • Hiking Ben Wyvis in Scotland

    Ben Wyvis

    Hiking our first Scottish “Munro”: Ben Wyvis in the district of Ross & Cromarty.

  • Melchsee-Frutt, Switzerland

    Abrupt sunsets

    Sunsets in the mountains are different from those over flatter landscapes.

  • Niederhorn, Switzerland

    Heaven is this

    Sitting, cross-legged, a couple of arms’ length from the edge of a two-and-a-half-thousand foot drop to the valley floor, watching clouds drift across the lake into the distance.

  • Susten Pass, Switzerland

    Finding a magnificent view of a scene I know well, by going up a little road and turning a corner.

  • Wyssebach Falls, Susten, Switzerland

    Stunning

    There’s a trend these days for people to use the word “stunning”: from tabloid newspapers to t.v. presenters. And their use of the word so often makes everyone else use it. A view of the sea: “stunning”. A fashionable dress: “stunning”. A film star looking average on a red carpet somewhere: “stunning”. I think that use of the…

  • Views from home across the lake to the Niederhorn on a winter Sunday.

  • Niesen Kulm. Switzerland

    The Niesen casts a clearly triangular shadow when the sun is low in the sky.

  • One of the more spectacular mountain lakes in the Bernese Oberland of Switzerland is at Oeschinensee, in a hanging valley easily reached by cable car from the town of Kandersteg. If you’re feeling lazy, then the walk to the lakeside restaurant is a fairly easy one. If you’re more adventurous, then there are a network of paths leading…

  • The mountain restaurant and top cable car station at First, above Grindelwald, affords amazing views down to the valley and to the huge wall of rock opposite: including the famous Eiger North Wall.

  • Terry Abraham’s wonderful outdoor films

    Terry’s videos make me want to turn off my computer and head for the British hills immediately: whether to a well-known place like the Lake District or to places which will be new to me.

  • The triangular Niesen towers over the Lower Simmen Valley and the towns of Spiez and Faulensee, on the shores of Lake Thun in Switzerland. The glowing clouds behind the mountains in the distance aren’t illuminated by towns, but by lightning storms above (respectively) Lenk and Gruyères.

  • The Mittellegi Hut

    Probably at number one on the list of “places I’d love to visit but probably never will” is the Mittellegi Hut, perched on the ridge of the same name near the summit of the Eiger. It’s famous amongst climbers as it’s along the approach route from the Eismeer station of the Jungfrau Railway, en route for…

  • Zugspitze

    Fear and exhilaration on the other side of the safety fence, at the absolute “Top of Germany”.