Visual Diary #5 - Mountains

Explore Landscapes #60: For as long as I can remember, I’ve deeply loved and respected the mountains. They are where I feel the happiest, they calm my mind, and they restore my equilibrium.

Sep 27, 2024

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Kings Canyon National Park | © 2021 Jon Norris

For as long as I can remember, I’ve deeply loved and respected the mountains. They are where I feel the happiest, they calm my mind, and they restore my equilibrium.

It only takes a couple of hours of hiking in the mountains, and I can feel any stress I’m carrying leaving my body.

Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature’s peace will flow into you as sunshine into trees. - John Muir

I also go to the mountains if I need to think something through to determine my next steps or to reach a conclusion. It could be something personal or work-related, something I’ve been carrying unresolved for weeks.

Once I leave the trailhead and start heading uphill, I can feel my mind and body working together to support my ascent. As I get into more of a steady hiking rhythm (which usually takes a mile or two), my mind relaxes and, without prompting, starts to ideate, offering potential solutions to whatever I’ve been agonizing over.

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I learn something every time I go into the mountains. - Michael Kennedy

Starting in my late teens, I tackled progressively longer and more challenging hikes with like-minded friends. We started planning and then completing long-distance hikes in the UK: The Pennine Way (268 miles), The Coast to Coast Path (192 miles), and The West Highland Way (96 miles).

The picture above shows me (on the right) sitting atop the summit of Ben Nevis in Scotland at 4,413 ft (1,345 m), the highest mountain in the United Kingdom. As you can see from the photo, it was an impressive view!

These may not sound like much compared to the epic long-distance trails in the US (for example, the Appalachian Trail and the Pacific Coast Trail), but they were significant adventures for us at the time.

In 1994, I spent three weeks in Chamonix, experiencing the French Alps firsthand. It was my first ‘real’ mountaineering trip. I was woefully unprepared and unfit, but I returned in one piece. What it did do was exponentially increase my love of the mountains.

Since moving to the US (in 2014), I have counterbalanced my love of the mountains with my increasing love of the desert. I’m unsure now whether I could choose between one or the other, so please don’t make me.

I hope you enjoy the following pairing of some of my mountain images with my favorite mountain quotes.

Aiguille du Midi Stations and East Ridge, Chamonix | © 1994 Jon Norris

Mountains are not Stadiums where I satisfy my ambition to achieve, they are the cathedrals where I practice my religion. - Anatoli Boukreev

Mer de Glace, Chamonix | © 1994 Jon Norris

The summit is what drives us, but the climb itself is what matters. - Conrad Anker

Aguille du Tacul and Grande Jurasse, Chamonix | © 1994 Jon Norris

In the mountains, you are sometimes invited, sometimes tolerated, and sometimes told to go home. - Fred Beckey

What are men to rocks and mountains? - Jane Austen

The best view comes after the hardest climb. - Vanessa Gendoma

Yosemite National Park | © 2020 Jon Norris

The only Zen you can find on the tops of mountains is the Zen you bring up there. - Robert M. Pirsig

Today is your day! Your mountain is waiting, so … get on your way! - Dr. Seuss

The greatest gift of life on the mountain is time. Time to think or not think, read or not read, scribble or not scribble—to sleep and cook and walk in the woods, to sit and stare at the shapes of the hills. - Phillip Connors

Sequoia National Park | © 2021 Jon Norris

Mountains know secrets we need to learn. That it might take time, it might be hard, but if you just hold on long enough, you will find strength to rise up. - Tyler Knott

Grand Teton National Park | © 2021 Jon Norris

It is safe to say that the Teton Range is as breathtaking as any mountain landscape one could ever see. - Stefanie Payne

Earth and sky, woods and fields, lakes and rivers, the mountain and the sea, are excellent schoolmasters, and teach some of us more than what we could learn from books. - John Lubbock

Sequoia National Park | © 2024 Jon Norris

Everyone wants to live on top of the mountain, but all the happiness and growth occurs while you’re climbing it. - Andy Rooney

My workshops cater to all levels of photographers and include classic viewpoints and hidden gems. I'll ensure you're in the best place to take advantage of the light and weather conditions.

You can choose a one-to-one workshop (and personalize it to what you'd like to photograph, specific techniques, or how far you want to hike) or join a small group workshop (limited to 3 photographers).

My landscape photography retreats are like multiple workshops rolled into one, but they also focus more on your path as a creative photographer. Retreats offer focused, hands-on field classes on landscape photographic techniques, workflow, assignments for the day, daily critique sessions, and lessons on processing your images.

Here are a few of my posts that you might be interested in reading: