This is in response to a prompt "Capture a moment of awe you felt as a young(er) person" at a IndieWebClub Bangalore Meetup
Not very long ago, me and my friends had the good fortune to visit Spiti Valley in Himachal Pradesh, India. Our journey begins as most others do in the urban hellscape of Delhi, from where we board a quick bus which takes us via Chandigarh all the way to Himachal.
Now when I say mountains, most people usually imagine what they see in wallpapers of their phone, or the odd scenic photo someone shared with them. Not a lot of people actually have a pretty realistic picture of what the roof of the world looks like. There is something really humbling about the great Himalayas, the tallest mountain range, which is not but a wrinkle against the surface of the Earth.
The massive forces that bring the land of India closer and closer to Asia are still active, every year the rock of Indian landmass tries to wedge itself further and further into the continent of Asia. As the contact area crumbles and folds, it slowly becomes the tallest mountain range in the world.
The sheer forces make themselves more apparent in the valley that is Spiti, ice, snow and snow melt carve deep gorges many many meters below roads that wind like serpents along cliff sides. Spiti traditionally lies in the Rain Shadow zone of the Himalayas. Moisture bearing clouds are few and far between, especially in the months we visited, so snow melt is the primary source of water.
The mountains themselves are tremendous snow-clad peaks, too high to be subject to the warming blanket of air that otherwise envelops life on this planet the weather here is it's own ruler. Wind howls and rushes along valleys cooled by the orographic lift provided and the surrounding land, whatever little moisture it has soon turns to ice and falls down sometimes in gentle snows and other time as violent rain. All powered ultimately by the intense energy of the Sun.
The quite literally tectonic strengths under my very own two feet - between India and Asia - were never more apparent to me than my brief time in the Spiti Valley, which I deeply cherish. An awe inspiring place indeed.
Two small images from Spiti Valley