Matterhorn by Moonlight

December 30, 2009 in Art, Fun, Geology, Life, Past, Photography, Places, Science, Travel | 9 comments

matterhorn_by_moonlight

There are mountains, and there is the Matterhorn. It’s all a matter of sculpture and presentation. Great art, great framing.

The Matterhorn is ice sculpture. It was carved by ice out of rock pushed to the sky by a collision between Italy and Europe that’s still going on. The ice was as high as the mountain, or higher, and the carved off parts are scattered all over the Alps and its alluvial fans, discarded by water and wind when the ice cap melted, only a few millennia before the Pyramids showed up. Go back to when the ice was at high tide, and the Alps looked like the near-buried parts of Greenland do today. (See here, here and here.)

The shot above was what the Matterhorn looked like by moonlight on our way back to the hotel tonight. There’s hardly a thing on Earth more impressive than that.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

9 comments

  1. Jamie Clark’s avatar

    Jamie Clark on December 30, 2009 at 11:15 pm

    Gorgeous. Hard to beat the Alps for raw sweeping beauty. Thanks, have a great trip

  2. jeneane’s avatar

    jeneane on December 30, 2009 at 11:49 pm

    astounding, doc. I mean, wow.

  3. Ravi’s avatar

    Ravi on December 31, 2009 at 6:46 am

    Nice photo. Must be a really great view to keep in memory. I do believe the earth will have many impressive things which we will never see in one lifetime. Each of these are great in their own place and worthy of admiration.

  4. Geoff’s avatar

    Geoff on December 31, 2009 at 7:32 am

    Awesome pic! Have you skied over the Italian side yet?

  5. quixote’s avatar

    quixote on December 31, 2009 at 3:13 pm

    Doc, you are having way too much fun. 😀

  6. Doc Searls’s avatar

    Doc Searls on December 31, 2009 at 5:45 pm

    Thanks, Geoff. That was the plan, but it requires a full day, and the risk that lifts back up to the top of the ridge from either side might be closed, stranding you. Also the slopes have been icy, and all the routes on the Italian side are red (intermediate). The run is also 14km to Cervinio on the Italian side. Given the trouble we had with a 1km red run on Gornergrat, we decided not to try.

    Had a bit of fresh snow this morning, so we might give it another go in the morning on Gornergrat.

  7. Colin’s avatar

    Colin on January 4, 2010 at 8:32 pm

    I’m terribly jealous of you Doc, I skied around Zermatt 8 years ago and found it wonderful, if a bit expensive. Would love to go back some day.

  9. Darin’s avatar

    Darin on June 15, 2010 at 8:07 pm

    Wow! That is one incredible picture. I am blessed just looking at it!

Comments are now closed.