During what may have been the coldest morning of my life, it was a totally mood-lifting inspiration to finally see a sliver of actual sunlight on the mountainside ahead.

At the summit I experienced another first. Even with the sun out, it was so cold and dry that I saw my first completely intact snowflakes—distinct, perfect, six-sided crystalline structures, like snowflake pictures I'd seen as a kid. Not the clumped-together broken pieces of flakes I was used to in western Oregon's slushy snow!

All images ©2002-2003 by Dietrich Neuman