Your THREE best photos of 2021

#1


K2

This is hands down my favorite photo of the year, because it has all the elements I find exciting in landscape photography. For one, it's K2, arguably the world's most impressive mountain. While the summit had been shrouded in clouds for most of the day, I was lucky enough to get a clear shot of it, with a dramatic sky and flattering light to boot. The two hikers on the ice mound was just divine providence.

There's even a story behind the hikers. The reason they were standing atop that hill was because they were trying to locate an optimal route through the tricky transition from the Godwin Austin Glacier to the Baltoro Glacier. Four glacial streams had to be crossed, which required having to find four ice bridges. I had done something similar earlier in the day, climbing up one scree-covered ice mound after another to try and work out the route. It had taken me 2.5hrs to extricate myself from there and make it to camp.

#2


Trango Towers

The 1300m rock face of the Trango Towers is the tallest in the world. In order to take this photo, I hiked down from camp to a string of glacial lakes in the middle of the Baltoro Glacier. The lakes would freeze overnight, but thaw later on in the day. I had scoped out the location the day before.

#3


New River Gorge National Park

I could easily have picked my third shot from my Karakorams trip, but decided to choose this one for a bit of variety. Earlier in 2021 West Virginia's New River Gorge National Park became America's newest National Park, so making a return trip down there was pretty high on my agenda. It was raining and the wind was whipping the spray around. This photo was a hurriedly taken from under an umbrella.

Not really in the same ballpark as GaliWalker , but here are a couple that I like:


Limestone palisades; dayhike near my home:


Pretty tarn; Fall backpacking trip in the Beartooth:

I’ve been around water a lot this year.

Hmmm. Let's see if I can do this:

Grand Tetons with moose

photos.app.goo.gl/RZGyaVbzUcp6Qn2n9


Yellowstone bison herd:

photos.app.goo.gl/VvdmcxumbLyTk88R7


And Arizona sunset:

photos.app.goo.gl/oEvErJPdhjp8SfLQ7

I hope someone clever can turn the links into photos...

Tough to decide but here it goes anyway.

Wana-be Wolf in the Snow


Fall Colors


Snake in the Grass

How about a montage to start....this is just one of three I was able to put together with the 6 months of imaging time I got once I was back on my feet again.