My own Mountain

Who wouldn't love to have his own mountain? I certainly would and I have been able to call one my own ... last Saturday ... for a couple of hours 😁

My own Mountain
^{for a short while}

Let's begin two days earlier: last week on Thursday afternoon, I have been on a hike with some colleagues up the Dobratsch mountain near Villach in Carinthia, which is my home state. It was hot and very hazy, so that the photos I made didn't turn out very well, but see yourself ...

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Nevertheless it was a nice hike and foremost it motivated me to do another hike which I planned for Saturday morning. Because I haven't done much so far this year, my plan was to do a fairly easy hike in the Nock Mountains area in Carinthia: the Königstuhl mountain, which is 2,336 m / 7,664 ft high and right at the border between the 3 Austrian states Carinthia, Styria and Salzburg.

Königstuhl Mountain

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As mentioned above, it's a fairly easy hike and so the sign at the parking lot Eisentalhöhe says that it's only a 2 hour hike. Well, I needed half the time, but only because I didn't make a break on my way up because it was still pitch dark at 4 in the morning when I started the hike and I wouldn't have been able to see anything anyway 😉

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In the beginning of the hike the sky was completely clear and I could see the stars, but the higher I got, the more clouds built up and when I reached the peak a thick layer of gray clouds covered the horizon where the sun was about to rise half an hour later.

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Of course, I was a bit disappointed at first, but then I realized that I was up there completely alone and no other soul was to see anywhere near nor far. Once again after a while I had a mountain for me alone - no matter if my view was amazing or not so good, it was my own and that's worth more than anything else, at least to me 😀

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And maybe Mother Nature has heard my thoughts because she showed me some colours and beautiful light, but she also had some fun with me by shutting off some of the colours only moments after I noticed them.
Just like she did with the pink shine behind the mountains in the photo below, that only lasted for a minute and I was lucky to take a shot before it completely disappeared. Seconds before it was higher and much more intense, but hey, I had it for me alone 😁

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I changed my wet t-shirt to a dry one, had something to drink and to eat, enjoyed the silence and took some photos. It was windy, but warmer than I thought and so I had a good time wandering around the peak lokking for possible photo compositions.

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A little later the sun rose behind the dark clouds and then she was above them illuminating the mountains with her warm light. Mother Nature showed me again how beautiful she is ... and it was all my own 😊

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There was a little lake called "Friesenhalssee" half way to the peak and I wanted to take a few photos there before the sun was too high and harsh. So I took my gear and made my way back down.
Minutes later I heard voices further down and knew form now on I had to share the mountain, but I didn't mind because I have had a beautiful time up there on my own. I met a couple with two kids and these 4 would be the only other people I would meet during my hike.

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I usually try to avoid people in my photos, but when there's glorious light I can't wait and because they are so small in the image, I didn't even need to clone them out.

Friesenhalssee

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Of course, when I reached the lake I had it for me alone, yay 😆
The lake is quite small and there are no spectacular mountains reflecting in it, but only two hills. If I don't forget I will come back next year in mid of June when the sun rises exactly between these two hills.

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So, that was my hike on the Königstuhl mountain, and although the sunrise didn't happen as spectacular as I was hoping for, I have had a great time and could take some quite pleasing images - I hope you like them too.

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On Sunday, I wanted to take another hike, another short but quite steep one. Unfortunately it rained the whole night long and so I postponed the hike to another day ... the Summer is still young.

Information

All photos were taken with the Canon EOS R and one of these lenses: Canon RF 24-105mm f/4 L IS USM, Canon RF 70-200mm f/4 L IS USM, Canon RF 100-400mm F5.6-8 IS USM, Canon EF 16-35mm 1:4 L IS USM, Canon EF 50mm 1:1.8 L STM, SIGMA 105mm 1:2,8 DG MACRO HSM.
If you are interested in the image data, I leave all EXIF and IPTC information stored in the pictures.

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^{Photos and Text: @johannpiber | Johann Piber | All rights reserved - do not use without my permission
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