The mountains have this particular effect on me. Whenever I am surrounded by these giant stone walls, I get this feeling of insignificance. This is not a bad thing at all. It is very humbling in a positive way. A reality check for the ego. Whatever feelings of grandeur or catastrophic worries might fly around in the mind, the sight of rugged peaks around me immediately brings perspective. Maybe this is because the landscape I grew up in is a flat as a pancake, or maybe this is something that happens to people who have lived in the mountains all their lives.
Another way that mountains humble us humans is their lifespan compared to ours. Time is a relative thing as we know, just remember the last time you waited thirty minutes for your dentist appointment. But even if we put relativity aside for a moment, mountains and mankind operate at completely different timescales. It took hundreds of millions of years for the movement of tectonic plates to create the mountain ridges we know today. The oldest human ever recorded lived to be a 122 years. For the most of us, getting beyond 75 is pretty good. I cannot even compare these numbers to the age of our mountains as we know them. Rationally I understand it, but I cannot truly get it. This difference in age also highlights that planet Earth will be perfectly fine in the discussion around the man-made impact on our climate. It’s the humans we need to worry about. Mountains have seen things we cannot even fathom and will outlast us with ease. The withdrawal of glaciers is a worrying sight but mountains have the patience to stick around and replenish these thick layers of ice. Humans do not.
Mountains inspire us to push ourselves further than we thought we could go. To overcome our relative insignificance. Just look at it from an engineering perspective and all the marvels that humans have built, tunnels that pierce through the heart of a mountain for dozens of kilometers, mountain passes that swirl their way along the facades at altitudes of 2000 meters and up. Mountains demanded of us to bring our A-game. Getting from A to B in a mountainous region is never just that. And then there is the sportive element of getting to the top of a mountain. Whether it is true mountaineering or hiking or cycling, getting to the top makes you feel proud and small at the same time.
There is something we share with mountains and that is their variety in appearance. No mountain is the same. The edges of their peaks are unique and create facades that are never replicated. Like human faces, there maybe similarities but every mountain is unique. This is further exaggerated by the weather conditions in Alpine surroundings which tend to vary wildly. The weather patterns can turn a valley on its head. A valley that would be described as cozy on a sunny day can turn into a dark and hostile place when the clouds and storms come in.
And then there is the light. The way weather forms in the mountains means that there are few days with nothing but a blue sky. Usually some clouds will form and because the way the wind batters these peaks, these clouds will move with speed. For photographers this creates ample opportunities to capture a scene that is illuminated in a way that may never happen again.
This variety in conditions combined with the sheer difference in size and age creates this feeling of insignificance that I value very much. The moderative effect of insignificance together with the fact that nothing is straightforward when mountains are involved set the tone for inviting the best versions of ourselves to show up, humble as ever.