Saturday, August 15, 2009

alpenglühen






hello hello blog team! i am rachel from living lab, and i am delighted every day to be deb's upstairs neighbor, 'other mama' to her kitties, and friend. the minute i got word of deb and jim's holiday plans, i could feel my brain start to dig into the archives of some of my best memories of the west. back before i lived there, when i was still just falling in love with it, i got my fix by spending a great deal of time in a sleeping bag on slabs of granite after miles of hiking and countless blisters.

there were all kinds of high-points about being in the mountains for weeks at a time (and a number of lows), but i thought this blog post (in honor of deb's and jim's adventure) could be about just one of them. my favorite. the one i still get butterflies about when i think of it, and occasionally long for.

the first time i experienced 'alpenglow' (
from the german alpenglühen) i literally had my breath taken away. its an optical phenomenon when the sun has set, but there is still an indirect reflection of the light on a mountain peak. they love to make those inspirational posters of these kinds of things, but obviously, if you've seen it you know, you cant really beat the real deal.

cheers to mountain light, summer holidays, memory making in the american west and my girl deb. come home soon! xx


photos: widerange.org, galen rowell, jack brauer, dee golden, jack brauer


3 comments:

Anonymous said...

These shots are beautiful. I hope its something I witness in this life time.

muralimanohar said...

I've never really called it by name, but I've seen it many times, and just am awe inspired by the beauty. Lovely post!

Bonbon Oiseau said...

rachel, you're killing me with this. you are alpenglow all over the place mama. for real. thank you for this and for being such a great friend, neighbor and kittie mama. cheers to an alpenglow kinda fall!
(and nice work changing the font! loving it! i may now switch over to your sans serif kind of lifestyle, you.)