Switzerland can be a rough place, especially when you look for the extreme. I always was someone who tried to put himself into extreme conditions to get the best results. This photo was no exception.
In October last year, my father and I decided to go hiking in the swiss alps. It took us about 7 hours to get up to the top near the Piz Kesch. We went for a short rest in a cabin before heading to our real mission:
At 4am in the morning we got up and prepared us for a 2h walk through the night without any visible paths. With headlights attached to our heads, we started our hike. Surrounded by darkness, wind and freezing temperatures we managed our way through the masses of snow. It was dead silence and all you could have heard was the crackling of the snow falling like avalanches into the valley.
After 1,5h we made our way through the mountain pass and had our final walk to the lake infront of us. Without the massive stone walls the mountains were providing before, we faced extreme wind conditions. -10 degrees now felt like -20 degrees. It was freezing cold. We arrived at the lake and there was no time to waste. After 2 minutes of shooting I wasn’t able to release the shutter by hand because I nearly couldn’t feel my fingers because of the harsh and freezing temperatures. I needed the inbuilt timer of my camera to capture the blue and purple-ish blue hour in all it’s glory. After a while the sun showed up and helped to feel alive again. We climbed uphill and arrived in the valley 5hours later with photographs nobody other made this day.
This experience showed me to never give up - in the end it’s always worth it even if you need to leave your comfort zone several times for this very moment. Taken with my Fujifilm X-T2 and the 16mm.
