Glencoe — Scottish Highlands Winter Solitude

Description

 Glencoe is Scotland’s most dramatic glen — a volcanic complex whose violent geological history is written in the severe verticality of its eastern faces. In winter, when snow covers the upper slopes and the valley floor road is quiet before dawn, the location achieves a quality of isolation that its summer tourist crowds make impossible. This photograph was made on a January morning after 30cm of overnight snowfall, at a position just above the A82 road at the narrow loch where the River Coe slows enough to provide a mirror surface. The three peaked ridges known as the Three Sisters dominate the right of frame, their snow-covered shoulders illuminated by the low-angled winter dawn that barely clears the eastern ridge. The image required crampons, ice axe, and a 2-hour pre-dawn approach across frozen ground.