At One’s Feet

When I return to the same ski area, time and time again, it becomes harder to think of something new to find visually.

Strangely the answer might be right in front of me, actually at my feet.

Through the long cold hours of the night, the piste bashers labour in their huge machines to iron out the rucked up snow that a day’s worth of skiing has displaced. And by the time the up-lifts start rolling the following morning, the snow lies groomed like corduroy.

And there is another more subtle and unseen force a work. Silently re-shaping the snow. God’s Sandpaper. The wind has been at work, driving ice crystals – spindrift – that erratically and abstractly erodes the laminated snow cover.  Delicate layers are stripped away by this unseen artist. Each canvas is unique. The beauty of the ski slopes is in the unexpected. It’s in the vistas, the long views over cloud filled valleys laid out before me.

And it’s also in the exotic dancing of the snow-sport participants, as boarder and skier flash by trailing snow plumes behind them.

Over on my other blog – iSighting – there’s a Post today about photography in high places – on the ski slopes and mountaineering. Do take a look, click the link: Going Solo.