Tschingellochtighorn from Engstligenalp
Obstinacy got me past a viewpoint I had aimed for and gave me the opportunity to capture a wonderfully dramatic alternative image.
Tschingellochtighorn from Engstligenalp
Abrupt sunsets
Sunsets in the mountains are different from those over flatter landscapes.
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.
The view around the corner at Susten Pass
Finding a magnificent view of a scene I know well, by going up a little road and turning a corner.
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 word needs a bit more…
Changeable Sunday
Views from home across the lake to the Niederhorn on a winter Sunday.
In the shadow of the giants
The Niesen casts a clearly triangular shadow when the sun is low in the sky.
Oeschinensee, Switzerland
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 up into the higher…
Grindelwald First, Switzerland
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.
Brienzer Rothorn, Switzerland
The Brienzer Rothorn is the tallest mountain on the northern side of Lake Brienz. The peak is accessible – in summer and autumn only – by a cable car from Sörenberg and by an open-sided, oil-powered steam railway from Brienz. The view across to the larger peaks of the Jungfrau Region and down to the lake are quite spectacular,…
Big Wide World is coming home
I started a website project in May, featuring the panoramic photographs I’m taking for an ongoing personal project I call Big Wide World. I designed the website from scratch and added new technology – like a map view and a better photographic list view – which I’d wanted to develop for a while. Unfortunately, time has proven that running this second…
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.
Jungfraujoch, Switzerland
The Jungfraujoch is the prime tourist destination in Switzerland’s Jungfrau region. High atop a mountain “saddle” between the Mönch and Jungfrau peaks, it’s accessible by taking a cog-wheel train which makes its way to the summit through a tunnel carved into the mountain. Temperatures in winter can plunge a low way below freezing, but we were lucky enough to…
Furka Pass, Switzerland
The Furka Pass, between Gletsch in canton Wallis and Realp in canton Uri, is one of the high alpine pass routes, only open between June and (approximately) October because of heavy winter snow falls in the region. The pass road is well known to James Bond fans, as it was featured in Goldfinger in 1964. (Watch out for Bond’s radar display: it shows Goldfinger to be near…
Locarno, Switzerland
At the end of a long afternoon’s drive from home, via Kandersteg, Brig, the Simplon Pass and a very narrow and windy road through the Ticinese mountains, we arrived at Locarno, on the shores of Lago Maggiore, just in time to catch the last sun of the winter day.
Melchsee Frutt, Switzerland
The Melchsee is a lake in the mountains, tucked away in the lee of a range of peaks between Meiringen and Engelberg. Nearby, the smaller stretch of water called Blauseeli (little blue lake) is a haven for frogs after the snows melt, and the edges of the pool are lined with frog spawn at this time of year.
Niesen, Switzerland
The pyramidal peak of the Niesen, in the Bernese Oberland of Switzerland, towers over the surrounding countryside. It heads a range of mountains leading from Adelboden and Lenk and is the “Hausberg” (home mountain) of Spiez and the Lower Simmen Valley, facing out over Lake Thun. There are folklore sayings about the mountain being a kind of barometer…
Rigi Kulm, Switzerland
The hotel, station and television transmission relay tower on top of the Rigi mountain in central Switzerland. I love how this turned out: it looks like a model railway, but is, in fact, a real mountain peak.