The weather has been great lately here in Switzerland. Blue sky, shiny sun, warm temperatures… It has made me forget about the last snowfall we had a few weeks ago! I was trying to take some photos in the forest near home, but I only got poor photos, a wet camera and lens and frozen fingers… But since that day, the sun came out and decided to stay with us. It looks more like spring than winter now…. That is supposed to be good, right? I’m not sure… I don’t feel ready to say goodbye to the snow… not just yet!!
So we are trying to go out to the mountain as much as we can these days. The snow won’t last long and I feel the winter hiking season has been pretty short!! So last weekend we went to another new place for us: Engelberg, in Canton Obwalden. Engelberg is a little town known mainly for its ski resort close to the Mount Titlis, the highest summit in the area at 3,238 metres above the sea level. We went there to try again our new snowshoes, but I wasn’t very convinced we were going to find too much snow… And the idea of hiking in a ski resort always makes me think about crowded trails. Well, I was wrong!! As soon as we took the mountain train in Engelberg, we were welcomed by a beautiful snowy forest. We walked in the forest until we arrived to a very small gondola that was going to take us to Trübsee, a frozen alpine lake at 1,764m above the sea level and at the foot of Mount Titlis.
The landscape we found was impressive. Around Trübsee there is a wildlife protected area and it is not permitted to walk outside the marked paths. All the snow around was still a huge layer of powder snow, an immaculate white blanket spoiled only by a few wildlife footprints and a few scattered trees and pines. It was like walking through a white desert! I had the feeling I was in a minimalist painting, all in white and pastel blue colors. And surrounding these perfect white dunes, the majestic Alpine summits.
We spent the whole day snowshoeing in this area. Even if we were walking in a ski resort, we had the trails almost to ourselves. What a fantastic experience! I think I’m going to love snowshoeing: being able to walk on fresh snow without sinking and getting wet trousers, going up on slopes that would be impossible to climb with hiking boots… I like it!! Although I have to confess that having the camera hanging and using hiking poles make everything a bit more complicated… And I feel like, between camera gear, winter clothes and the snowshoes, I’m carrying my whole apartment in my backpack, hehehe. But I guess it’s all part of the challenge!
Here are some of the photos I took that day in Engelberg. It’s a different post than usually, with some minimalist photos, paying attention to the different textures and light on the fresh snow. I specially like the last ones I took at sunset. I love the last light in the mountains, when the summits seem to catch fire with the last orange sun rays and how the sky changes colors, even on a cloudless day. Well, I hope you like them!! 🙂
Canon EOS 5D Mark IV 39mm f/11 1/125sec. ISO100
Canon EOS 5D Mark IV 33mm f/11 1/250sec. ISO100
Canon EOS 5D Mark IV 70mm f/11 1/250sec. ISO100
Canon EOS 5D Mark IV 70mm f/11 1/160sec. ISO100
Canon EOS 5D Mark IV 53mm f/11 1/640sec. ISO100
Canon EOS 5D Mark IV 50mm f/11 1/640sec. ISO100
Canon EOS 5D Mark IV 63mm f/11 1/1000sec. ISO100
Canon EOS 5D Mark IV 24mm f/11 1/1000sec. ISO100
Canon EOS 5D Mark IV 30mm f/11 1/400sec. ISO100
Canon EOS 5D Mark IV 220mm f/5 1/1250sec. ISO100
Canon EOS 5D Mark IV 164mm f/5 1/3200sec. ISO100
Canon EOS 5D Mark IV 300mm f/5 1/1250sec. ISO100
Canon EOS 5D Mark IV 135mm f/5.6 1/500sec. ISO100
Canon EOS 5D Mark IV 340mm f/5.6 1/125sec. ISO100
Canon EOS 5D Mark IV 400mm f/5.6 1/125sec. ISO100
Canon EOS 5D Mark IV 104mm f/5.6 1/30sec. ISO100
Awesome, awesome images!! I especially liked the one with the moon in it. Your minimalist photos were great. These made my morning! Thanks.
Thanks a mil Anne!! So happy you like them!!! I know these photos are a bit more experimental than the landscapes I usually post… But the texture of the snow was so perfect that I couldn’t resist to not to try to do something different!! 🙂 I guess all these experiments are part of the journey in photography… Sometimes it works, others not, but it’s always fun to try new things!
I love how your winter is all about bright sun, snow in sparkle and light blue shadows. Not boring at all! And the sunset doing its magic with the mountains, it is just a breathtaking. The mountain seems to shift in character as it is shifts in color. The orange and pinkish lilac ones are my favorite :))
Thanks a lot, Marina! Well, some photographers always tell me that I should get some more clouds on my photos, so they look more “dramatic”… But this winter it’s being all blue skies and mild temperatures! It has snowed a bit, but it’s almost gone here in the lowlands!!! I’m actually very surprised to find so much fresh snow as the day I took these photos!! That day was so beautiful that I told my husband I wanted to stay until sunset, just to see how the mountains change colors… it’s always a beautiful sight!! I should stay until later to see more sunsets, right? 🙂
Why make dramatic of such a happy scene? :))
Oh, more sunsets is always worth staying. They make this life so unforgetably beautiful! For more colors in mountains and off them!
You would be surprise how many of those photographers make those “dramatic skies” with Photoshop when they don’t find them in the location of the photo…
I’m more like you… I like sunsets, with colorful clouds or a clean sky just changing colors gradually… The important thing is to see them as often as one can!! And for me, there’s also a lot of beauty in those clean and crispy skies, specially here in the mountains!
I can imagine… These days any kid can do the drama with their phone filters, I guess (me know :)).
sometimes drama is good too. But there is so much beauty in simple nature, as it is. may the eye never get tired of finding it 🙂