Grumpy old mountain man living in Spain
Here's a strange image from today's hike in the Sierra Elvira. No filters, no manipulation, nada! Shows a temperature inversion with the city of Granada appearing out of the gloom in the lower half of the image.
Above the inversion layer the Sierra Nevada mountains rise 3000 metres above the city and are in clear haze free air.
The 3 main summits of (L to R) Alcazaba, Mulhacén & Veleta are prominent.
Just love those mountain days when the early morning cloud starts to dissipate and the light constantly changes thereafter. These are the Cumbres Verdes mountains just outside Granada
I'm looking back today and find I'm missing the tranquility of those unknown hiking trails in Patagonia we frequented. The twisted and torn forests of lenga and birch. The not knowing quite what was round the next corner. A fitting tribute to I think
Morning Adam. We are passing your way Tuesday, taking our LoRa radios for a walk 🤣 . From the Sierra Elvira we will have line of sight to Granada. Do you have a LoRa radio by any chance?
I am at the final stages of writing a book and am now looking for suggestions and recommendations for self publishing.
Preference is for smaller, more simple personal solutions rather than complex big tech ones, but at this stage I just need some ideas.
Post Christmas morning walk with the dogs. Arko looking quite pleased with himself, for some reason!
Short hike up the Rio Lanjarón and back to town via the Cecarta acequia. Short and sweet. Have a great festive period
Early Christmas present from our local walking group. Says a lot doesn't it, especially the card, which reflects quite amusingly on some of my struggles and inability to find the correct route 🤣 🤣
Is this good or bad? Which path is this?
One path leads to a future where wilderness is a gated asset, a serene backdrop for the ultra-wealthy and conservation becomes a luxury business.
The other leads back to the core principles of true ecotourism and public protection, where conservation benefits ecosystems and local communities, and awe-inspiring places remain for all.
Some of the most insane mountain photography ever from this amazing winter ascent of Cerro Torre by Colin Haley
After many previous failures incl managed hosts going out of business, I've finally got up & running on an old 2017 mini-pc from home
@richard
Allows me to do longer mountain posts with more images & also my grumpy ramblings & failings with technology, without clogging up this Mastodon feed.
As the introductory pinned post states "If you're a mountain person who loves tech (or a tech person who loves mountains), we probably have things in common."
Been a frustrating couple of days trying to install automatic webcam image capture & ftp upload to my website. Most programs are far too complex for this simple situation. Ended up with a simple python script. Doesn't help too when my computer wont stop sleeping, suspending or hibernating.
Then, one morning, all at once everything clicks and works fine 😀
In a few days I've gone from a southern hemisphere late spring/early summer to a northern hemisphere late autumn/early winter environment. Nowhere was this more evident than yesterday when hiking in the Vereda de Estrella, near Granada, approaching the north face of Alcazaba. Just glorious autumnal colours!
Walking
Back after 3 days of travelling and last night slept the sleep of the gods in my own home. You can't beat nearly 10 hours solid sleep
Looking out from Cerro Paredón near El Chalten towards the east over Lago Viedma to the mountains beyond. Horizontal lines of steppe, pampas, lake, mountains, cloud and sky. A few icebergs can be seen on the lake surface having broken away from the Videma glacier
This is quite an unusual image that we didn't realise we had captured until later that day. This is the magnificent Cerro Torre summit in the late afternoon sun. We knew there were condors flying around but didn't expect to see a paraglider appear in the image too 🤣
The story of our recent encounters with the Andean Condor
The Condor approaching was anything but steady, tossed and jostled by the cliff-face turbulence. She was coming home to find her mate.
With an expert’s grace, she mastered the chaos. She lined up her final approach, adjusted her primary feathers with microscopic precision, and then, folded her wings and dropped like a stone, landing perfectly on a rocky perch just below our vantage point.
Short video of her coming in to land on the cliffs outside El Chalten
Apologies to all my veggie friends for this. I live with a vegetarian and eat almost 95%+ vegetarian food. Love it. But sometimes, especially in Patagonia, you just have to eat a half a sheep.
Our final week here in El Chaltén, Can't believe 4 weeks already. Comfortable here, surrounded by warm, friendly people & a great selection of bars & restaurants. We've been doing lots of stunning trekking routes among some of the most dramatic mountains on the planet.
1 rough week but the weather has been superb. Nothing but t-shirts & shorts lately. Days incredibly long, with light from 4:30 am until 10 pm.
Could easily see myself living here. Be sad to leave. It's been an absolute blast.
