Torres del Paine, Patagonia

This amazing range of mountains are called the Horns of Paine and are located in the Torres del Paine national park in Chilean Patagonia. I had been photographing the mountains at sunrise looking across one of the lakes but as the sun rose and the clouds became more golden I decided to use a long lens and captured this image.

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Torres del Paine, Patagonia

This mountain is the Paine Massif fount in Torres del Paine national park. It’s slopes seemed to be covered with hanging glaciers and the strong winds were whipping up clouds of snow from the summit. Truly spectacular.

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Torres del Paine, Patagonia

These are the Towers of Paine. Finger like spires of granite rock rising to over 3,000 meters which seem to just generate their own weather systems. Normally covered in thick cloud I was particularly lucky on this day to get a clear view.

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Torres del Paine, Patagonia

Another of my images of the Towers of Paine but literally 30 minutes after the earlier one. Here you can see the clouds starting to form again over the towers providing a spectacular sky.

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Patagonia, Argentina

This impressive spire is called Cerro Torre. Often shrouded in cloud, here new cloud can be seen forming around its sumit due to the height.

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Torres del Paine, Patagonia

An early morning view of the Paine Massif shrouded in cloud. The rising sun is striking the low cloud surrounding the mountain.

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Torres del Paine, Patagonia

This is French Valley in the heart of Torres del Paine. I believe it derives its name from the French climbing expedition that camped here on one of the many attempted ascents of the mountains. Here you can see the formidable wall of rock and ice as you look across the valley which is absolutely breathtaking. What you can’t experience from the photograph is the cracking and crashing sound of avalanches down this cliff side every few minutes.

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Torres del Paine, Patagonia

A view of the Horns of Paine in the Torres del Paine National Park. Here you can see new clouds forming above the horns which are so massif that they literally generate their own localised weather system.

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Crinkle Crags, The Lake District

Both this and the next image were captured on a hike up the crags in the middle of winter. Sporadic snow storms were a feature of the day as was spectacular winter light. The light between the storms would light up the hillside revealing every little detail which makes for a superb print.

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Crinkle Crags, The Lake District

Both this and the previos image were captured on a hike up the crags in the middle of winter. Sporadic snow storms were a feature of the day as was spectacular winter light. The light between the storms would light up the hillside revealing every little detail which makes for a superb print.

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Nitting Haws, The Lake District

You might not believe it but moments earlier this entire scene was virtually a white out. The thick black storm cloud you can see the right of the image had just blown through and cleared in an instant to reveal this wonderful scene. I just managed to catch it as the sun broke through.

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Wastwater, The Lake District

The mountain you see here is Yewbarrow and was the subject of my next days climb. This day however had been spent crossing the scree slopes to the right hand side (opposite side to the road) of Wastwater. The day had been stormy and slow going but as I reached the end of the lake the late afternoon winter sun began to break through and light up the mountains.

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Hills of the The Lake District

The name of this particular range of hills escapes me however the walk is a well known Wainwright walk above Grasmere called the Lion and the Lamb. If you continue on the ridge beyond the famous rock formation you reach this point to gain a spectacular view. The view is of course helped by the winter snow which means fewer people on the hills and is my favourite time of year.

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Bowfell, The Lake District

This mountain is called Bowfell and is literally a mountain on top of a mountain. To reach this point you need to scale Crinkle Crags. Once beyond the crinkles the hillside flattens out to reveal the summit of Bowfell. Possibly my favorite walk in the Lake District.

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