"Winter Wind/ Mount Williamson" - Inyo National Forest/ John Muir Wilderness, California

Mount Williamson is located in the John Muir Wilderness of California's Eastern Sierra Nevada Mountain Range.  At 14,370 feet it is the second tallest peak in the Sierra's... only Mount Whitney (14,494 ft.) is taller. I've always considered Mt. Williamson, which rises almost 10,000 feet above the floor of the Owens Valley, to be the most visually impressive of all the great peaks in the Sierra Nevada Range. From this vantage point, along the road to Onion Valley, you get a spectacular view of Mount Williamson's precipitous north face.
I captured this dramatic image with my 500mm telephoto lens on a bitterly cold and windy March morning in 2005.  While I was shivering in the frigid conditions, and in anticipation of the first rays of sunlight, I noticed what appeared to be a wispy cloud near the summit of the giant mountain.  As the sunlight continued to creep further down the flanks of the Sierras, I soon realized that my cloud was not a cloud at all, but blowing snow that was being hurled hundreds of yards to the south from the gale force winds that were pounding the north face of the mountain.
 
Signed, Limited Edition of 200 Black & White Prints.

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View related images: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Keywords: Independence, Lone Pine Peak, Alabama Hills, Big Pine, Bishop, Lone Pine, Kings Canyon National Park

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