The white mountains - Essay Example

Surprising tones were displayed among the bands of earth made visible by road cut-throughs. These bones of the mountains, the strata that reveal their core construction, only serve to heighten our perception of the volume of rock we’re seeing and the weight of patient time it has taken for wind and weather to sculpt the billowing rounded crests we see emerging around every angle we look. Even the chatter in the car during the drive takes on new dimensions with the changing scenery. While we start with discussions of a suitably frivolous nature, by the time we’ve hit the true mountains our conversation has taken on new weight and purpose.

We begin discussing our destination point, The Old Man of the Mountain, and how it came to be. This was a rock formation chiseled out of a cliff’s edge by wind, water, weather and the natural rock fracturing that occurs as a result of constant changes in temperature. The formation closely resembled the features of a craggy old man in profile. The formation collapsed in 2003, the year after our visit. Our stories of how we’d first heard about the Old Man and how we eventually came to the decision to visit slowly began to taper off as the grandeur of the mountains surrounding us began working on our subconscious.

With the revelation of each new vista, we began losing track of our conversation, allowing sentences to dangle without completion as we were struck silently breathless at a new view. Then, suddenly, we were there, at the lookout point just off the freeway that affords a perfect view of the Old Man in profile as he gazes over a spectacular view of Profile Lake. The lake isn’t often mentioned in descriptions of the site and makes a stunning and sometimes surprising counterpoint to the face.

He exists in awesome, mystifying reality, poking out from the side of the cliff in perfect detail. It is surprising to us how