Like Another Planet

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We hop in the car, zoom down the highway for twenty minutes, then turn off of the paved road. Dirt crunches under the tires of our Crosstrek, behind us a huge cloud of dust. We bounce around in our seats as Neil steers toward the pinnacles, dodging rocks poking out of the ground. Twenty more minutes pass. I look down at my hands, suddenly in large white gloves, my body in a loose white suit, fans whirring, the weight of a helmet on my head, gold visor tinting the view. I hear a voice through some static babble in my ear. We are about to land on another planet.

Winter View in Lone Pine, CA

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The silhouette of a tiny person on top of beige desert boulders in front of snow covered mountains.

The air is cold, a strong breeze blows hair across my face. I try to grasp the view, both mentally and with my camera. I take in the beige brush and boulders that look like summer against the winter white snow peaks in the distance. I just stand there, almost paralyzed by the view. The way the light carves out each rock, the fog lingers in the mountains. It’s almost impossible to really wrap my head around the scale and scenery I get to witness. It feels surreal. Eventually I lift the camera and look through the viewfinder. Inside the little rectangle, with the familiar light meter and dark peripherie, the view suddenly seems easier to absorb.

Snowed In

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The view from the attic of a three story A-frame in Mammoth Lakes​​​​​​​​​. We stopped at the address we had typed into google maps. I spotted a spare tire sticking out of a huge wall of snow, the attached Jeep was buried. We stared up the wall of snow, the tip of the cabin barely visible. Someone had carved steps into the snow and we climbed up until we reached a narrow foot path between white walls, leading to the entrance of the cabin. We signed in and dropped off our bags. I climbed all the way to the attic, overlooking the living space through the open door on one side and a wall of snow through the window on the other.