It’s hard to beat the soaring majesty of mountains. It’s also apparently hard to define exactly what a mountain is. Countries around the globe use factors such as height, elevation, relief and volume in a vain attempt to define them. The Oxford English Dictionary settles for something suitably vague: “a natural elevation of the earth surface rising more or less abruptly from the surrounding level and attaining an altitude which, relatively to the adjacent elevation, is impressive or notable.” Merriam-Webster doesn’t do any better: “a landmass that projects conspicuously above its surroundings and is higher than a hill.” Look up ‘hill’ in the same dictionary and you will find that it is described, helpfully, as “lower than a mountain.”
However you define them, mountains are some of the best places to look for snow. For the past two years winter has seemed determined to pass me by. Last year, New York was unseasonably warm and disappointingly snow-free; this year Seattle‘s rain and suggestion of frost has been equally underwhelming so I decided that if winter wouldn’t come to me, I would go to winter. Yesterday, my friend Sylvia and I headed north to the mountains near Granite Pass and there, in all its snowy glory, we found winter. Here are some of the snow-capped peaks that greeted us.
“Mountains have a way of dealing with overconfidence.” – Nemann Buhl
“No matter how sophisticated you may be, a large granite mountain cannot be denied – it speaks in silence to the very core of your being.” – Ansel Adams
“Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out that going to the mountain is going home; that wildness is necessity; that mountain parks and reservations are useful not only as fountains of timber and irrigating rivers, but as fountains of life.” – John Muir
Have you seen any soaring summits or peaked pinnacles recently? If you would like to join in the travel theme (everyone’s welcome!) here’s what to do:
- Create your own post and title it Travel theme: Mountains
- Include a link to this page in your post so others can find it too
- Get your post in by next Thursday, as the new travel theme comes out on Friday
- Don’t forget to subscribe to keep up to date on the latest weekly travel themes. Sign up via the email subscription link in the sidebar or RSS.
Looking forward to your mountainous post.
xxx
Ailsa
Where's my backpack? 
Snow and fog… I love the atmosphere… great pictures! (:
Here is mine
A beautiful, atmospheric shot, Alexandra, I love it. xxx
Thanks so much! (:
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Great shots! Here’s my contribution: http://sarahryan85.wordpress.com/2013/02/17/travel-theme-mountains/
Love it, Sarah, that Whitepod looks very snazzy indeed! 🙂
Wonderful photos! Just an aside, the sacred Arunachala in South India where I live much of the year, is sometimes called a Hill, sometimes a Mountain – so there you go! Thanks for taking a peek at smallpebbles……will be following along your traveling trail. in peace….
I’ve never seen Arunachala in person, only via webcam http://www.arunachala-live.com/ but it is truly beautiful. Glad you enjoyed your visit to my travelogue! 🙂
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So many mountains, so little time! http://travelsandtrifles.wordpress.com/2013/02/17/wild-weekly-photo-challenge-wanderlust/
I know the feeling, Tina! 🙂 Wonderful shots, that one of Golden Hour over Kiawah Island is beyond beautiful. xxx
Thanks Ailsa! Bridges are looking good 🙂
Haha, I can’t keep up. I had five pages of entries on the mountain theme. I need to take a nap!
I truly admire your commitment! You’re amazing.
I try to get to everyone’s post, read it and like it – even if I don’t have time to leave a comment all the time.
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Hi Ailsa!
I nominated you for a Liebster Blog Award. Check it out! 🙂
http://debbishibuya.wordpress.com/2013/02/17/liebster-blog-award/
Yaay, thank you so much, I had a good giggle at your random facts, we sound a lot alike 🙂
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Wonderful photos, and a really great post – I just love mountains, the real ones… 🙂
I love your mountain post, Drake (I think it was the last one too!) 🙂
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In contrast to your beautiful snow covered mountains from the NW where I was born, I give you the desert mountains, a different energy, but still magnificent. I love your topic!
http://patriciaddrury.com/2013/02/17/travel-theme-mountains/
Wow, Patricia, just when I think I’ve found my favourite one of these photos, I scroll down and they keep getting better. Gorgeous.
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Aloha everyone, I’m a first time participant from Hawai’i! My photo is hardly the untouched towering peaks of may entries, yet is special because of what was created there:
http://seasreflectingstarlight.com/2013/02/17/travel-theme-mountains-colossal-le-shan-buddha/
Welcome, so glad you joined in the Mountain theme, what a wonderful photo, and oh wow, what an incredible feat of engineering to have carved that out of a mountain. Lovely post!
Thanks you, and yes it would be an impressive feat even with today’s technology, but it is even more astonishing how people created such marvels over a thousand years ago.
Dear Ailsa,
getting to the mountains can be as exciting as being there: http://ofradix.net/2013/02/17/en-route-swiss-mountain-travel/
I have lived and worked in various mountainous regions and am still fascinated by them. Yet, it is in the eyes of the beholder what qualifies as mountain. Most of us associate mountain travel with adventure, with challenge, with great effort and distance. But on my life’s journey, I found the biggest mountains to discover on the inside – much closer but not always easier to get to!
Hi Othmar, I loved your journey to the mountains, and what a beautiful reward was waiting for you. Wonderful post! xxx Ailsa
Yay! Mountains!!! You know I couldn’t sit this one out!! 🙂 Here’s mine: http://newsofthetimes.org/2013/02/17/travel-theme-mountains/ Hope you are doing great!!
Woohoo, so good to see you, JC, and look at those mountains. I’m doing a happy dance at the sight of those fabulous blue glaciers. Beautiful. I’m doing really well, hope you are too! xxx Ailsa
Last weeks travel theme was difficult because out of the tens of thousands of travel photos we have taken none seemed to fit the gaudy theme very well. But this week was different! We probably have over a thousand photos that would fit this weeks mountain theme. Don’t worry, I didn’t post all of them. It was difficult to narrow them down but I managed to select fourteen of my favorites from around the world.
Wait, what? Seriously, Daniel, is there anywhere in the world you haven’t visited? These are fantastic, I love love love this post. If you need someone to carry your luggage as you trot the globe, sign me up. 🙂
There is always somewhere else to visit. But we have been to a lot of places. You will have to take a number on carrying the luggage. There is a long line of volunteers ahead of you. 🙂
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What wonderful mountains. I’m living in very flat country too. Here’s my mountain contribution:
http://artifactsandfictions.wordpress.com/2013/02/17/a-so-called-mountain/
That is the cutest, most character-filled mountain I’ve ever seen, Suzanne. It looks like a giant turtle lying flat on the ground. It’s adorable. 🙂
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more mountain shots Ailsa – http://lynneayersbeyondthebrush.wordpress.com/2013/02/17/visual-quotations-5/
Ahh Lynne, you got me with that Yeats quote, I’m such a huge fan! Gorgeous series of mountain photos, but something about the Chilean Andes speaks to my soul. There’s something so wild about them.
On our last day in Chile we could either check out of our hotel midday and haul our luggage around town for an hour or two 😦 or leave our luggage essentially unattended in the lobby 😦 😦 or hire a driver to take us AND our lugguage for a day’s drive into the Andes 🙂 We chose door #3 and glad we did.
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What a wonderful idea. It got me scouring my memory for my craziest and most fun mountain times. I have never had a bad time in mountains. But I have had some incredible adventurous fun! I have so many photos I had to split this into two. I hope you don’t mind. So here is the first: http://blog.mjfimages.com/2013/02/17/i-love-mountains-i/
I’m just now getting caught up on the mountain entries. Your post is extraordinarily beautiful, your love of mountains leaps off the page. Mind-blowingly beautiful, those Teton shots made my eyes well up at the sheer beauty, and that shot of someone (who?) in the Cascades, wow.
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Lovely faux-monochrome snow photos, Ailsa. Here are my (snowless) mountains – http://newpillowbook.wordpress.com/2013/02/17/travel-theme-mountains/
I love it, those Black Hills of Dakota are so fierce-looking, aren’t they? 🙂
Almost like daggers! 🙂
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My mountains aren’t as big as yours but I am okay with that.
Yours are beautiful, btw.
These are gorgeous, that sunset one (#9) is breathtakingly beautiful. You’re quite right, they are mountains! Loving the travel queen nickname too, grin! 🙂
Good to know your ego is in tact 😉
Haha, always 🙂
😉
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Love your shots, especially the last one. Here are a few of mine…
http://quotidianhudsonriver.com/2013/02/17/11-17-13-travel-theme-mountains/
Love it, Robert – well, the photos, anyway – the computer problems not so much – bad Apple. Hope you get it sorted soon! Love that shot of your cute little guide! xxx
When wp.com had a weekly photo contest for the theme of ‘home’, I used mountains 🙂 http://stufffound.wordpress.com/2013/02/12/weekly-photo-challenge-home/
I love that shot of Alberta, Eyagee. Thanks for joining in the weekly travel theme, hope you join in with a new post next week. xxx
Looking forward to it! 🙂 You are quite welcome.
Hi Ailsa, wonderful pictures you have there. My first time to join your travel theme. Here’s mine 🙂
http://momentsinyourlife.wordpress.com/2013/02/18/travel-theme-mountains/
Yaay, thanks for joining in the Mountain travel theme, Angie, welcome aboard. Such magnificent mountains, your photos make me want to hop on a plane right now! xxx
Thanks! It’s fun to be able to share something and your themes give me ideas of posts to make. With your photos, I’d be willing to trade places with you too! :-)x
Beautiful theme 🙂 Here’s some of my photos http://reenareigns.com/2013/02/18/travel-theme-mountains/.
Have a nice day!
Ooh, a lovely series of photos, Reena, I really love that aerial shot of the Alps. xxx
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Perhaps one day you will come here to France and check out The Pyrenees? Then of course to the East, The Alps… 🙂
Oh yes, leamuse, I will, that’s a promise! xxx
a great and very popular post; you probably won’t notice my comment among all the others but thanks for visiting and commenting on my blog.If I do any mountain blogs I will link to yours
Hya John, you didn’t go unnoticed, I try and get to as many comments as I can, even if it’s a week or so behind. I’m so glad you wandered over to my travelogue, hope you see you again soon! xxx
A rather small but still stunning mountain in Australia …
http://the-serenity-space.com/2013/02/18/travel-theme-mountains/
Oh it’s so cute, Jenn, a little mini mountain. It looks like a smushed up face, I love it. 🙂
Lol that it does and yes its very cute 🙂
So glad you included the quotes with the stunning photography!
Yaay, glad you enjoyed them, that Muir quote is a particular favourite of mine. xxx
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The mountains in my back yard http://wp.me/p2Ce06-oU
Lovely, the Rockies are so stately, aren’t they? xxx
Here’s my entry for this week’s theme:
Happy Monday everyone!
Lovely post, Karen, those limestone formations are wonderful. xxx
love your format– beautiful.
Thanks Rhonda, I’m glad you stopped by my travelogue. xxx Ailsa
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Your travel pictures are beautiful. I’ve decided to show you the view from my favourite place. http://apostadayfor2013.wordpress.com/2013/02/16/travel-theme-mountains/
Aww, thanks for sharing your favourite corner of the world, I can see why you hold it so dear. xxx
Thanks, can’t wait to go back later this year.
This was fun. The mountains where I live are nothing comparesd to your mountains but here ya’ go!
http://josephelonlillie.com/2013/02/18/travel-theme-mountains/#
Hi Joseph, so glad you joined in the Mountain travel theme and hope to see you in many more. I loved your post, wonderful photos and oh, that Vera Nazarian except was such a joy to read. xxx
Hi all! Had so much fun looking at everybody’s pictures, and going through my own. Here is the second part of “I Love Mountains”:
http://blog.mjfimages.com/2013/02/18/i-love-mountains-ii/
I can’t say enough about these photos. They make me so very happy, thank you MJ xxx
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