The mountains encompass different worlds: the tranquil world of vegetation with its alpine meadows, the lively world of water with its torrents, and the majestic world of rock with its high peaks. It is the rocky world of the alpine and snow zones that fascinates me.
Light on Stone
One might find these rocky landscapes uniform and monotonous, but if you take the time to contemplate them, you’ll see a whole range of reflections and shimmering hues. The eye sees yellow or green dancing across the rock faces, shades of blue glistening here and there, reminiscent of the sky’s color. And the beauty of these grays—a whole spectrum of them, some opaque and austere, others vivid and shimmering. It’s a living spectacle unfolding before the eyes of anyone who has walked a long way to reach this high-mountain landscape.
The Sounds of Pebbles
The silence of the high mountains is striking. And by contrast, the few sounds that break through shatter any reverie. The cry of rare birds, a rolling stone whose fall we hear for a long time, reminding us that we are high up, close to the sky, and that the ground of our small lives and their worries is far away. Our breath—often short—reminds us of our humanity, which has been granted privileged access to a place where it is not meant to live. The breath—that of the sky, of the cold wind that makes us shiver and invites us to tuck our necks into our scarves or down jackets.
Immensity Within Reach
For those who reach the pass or the summit, the landscape opens up, and the mineral world unfolds as far as the eye can see. It is immense, and when you look into the distance, it becomes tiny—you could almost touch it. Clouds sometimes add an extra touch of unreality, a hint of blurriness to the shifting geology. For to my keen senses, this landscape never appears solid, but rather as if it were dancing and playing within the vastness. It is a space in the making; I see the ridges stretching toward the sky, the cliffs sloping toward the lakes, the peaks laughing at their own inaccessibility.
Photos
A few photos taken in the summer of 2023 in the Haute Clarée, mainly in the Cerces massif, at altitudes between 2,800 and 3,100 meters:
