Out of Luck

Photographing is all about being at the right place at the right time to capture the most amazing display of light.  In order to achieve moments like this, a photographer needs to have luck on his/ her side. I can’t complain, since I arrived in Switzerland, I had an amazing photographic luck streak. Fantastic weather, nice sunsets and sunrises, birds not flying away, friends visiting, and all other things that make photographers love every minute of their days.

However, this last 2 weeks, my luck changed. Whenever I plan a trip, something happens. As John tells me, life happens sometimes.

Here is my biggest out of luck moment of the week. I have been planning to go to Aletsch Glaciers for a couple of months, for some weird reason, there is never a good time. Finally this past weekend, John and I woke up really early and got into our over three-hour trip for the glaciers. The plan was to arrive at Eggishorn by cable car (despite my fears) and then do the four-hour loop trail visiting the Marjelensee Lake.

The train and cable car ride went well. The weather was a perfect combination of sunny with some clouds in the sky and calm winds. At east until we left the Eggishorn observation area. A cold wind started blowing from the south side, we made the short one hundred meters pathway to the first viewpoint and admired the majestic view of the glacier. The wind picked up even more and we decided to go back to the observation area and put some extra cloth layers. A little over one minute after, the weather condition had turned 360 degree. It had started to snow heavily and a thick fog formed all around the area. There was no glacier in site. How was it possible? All 23km of glaciers had disappeared right in front our eyes, we knew that it was all there, because we had had the opportunity to take a peak at it less than 5 minutes before.

Frustrated, we went inside and waited for over three hours. Finally, the snow stopped and we went outside to take some record shots. Yes, we were out of luck this time to photograph, but at least we have the 10 seconds of glorious view recorded in our minds. See you soon Alestch Glaciers!