This week's gallery round-up introduces some fauna that aren't either white or woolly, and sets the mathematical challenge of counting Alpine peaks on a very very clear day ...
Welcome back to the OM gallery where we currently have some pretty remote wild camping and a very pleasing number of sheep, as well as the usual hills, hills, and more hills. In fact, British upland scenes - with or without the white wooly faces - are doing pretty well at the moment; it's Neill H's shot of Buttermere, rather than a soaring Himalayan or Andean peak, that's leading the monthly Bridgedale sock/photo contest. As ever, there are plenty of new challengers appearing in the gallery all the time and you can see some of them in last week's sneak peek at what OMers get up to on their Bank Holiday weekends, as well as checking out the photos below. Phew, double bill. OK, so you normally expect double bills to follow straight after each other rather than having a few days' time lag, but this is the web and hey, what do you expect, immediacy or something?:-)
When we mentioned wild camping, Mark Pillinger's album - Walking in the alps - is one of those we had in mind. Never mind camping out beside a corrie tarn, or in a woodland glade - this is extreme wild camping up above the Mer de Glace, in the Mont Blanc Massif. There's not much camouflage up there - everything that isn't white is a tent - and it looks, well, pretty 'wild' to us. Mark's also sent us some stunning shots of the mountains - count the peaks only if you're really bored at work and have a lot of time to kill ...
White Valley, by Mark Pillinger
Osbie's Samoens Aug 06 album is nothing if not diverse, after the snow, rock, and absolutely no greenery, in Mark's 'Walking in the Alps' album. There are flowers, goats, dogs, huts perched loftily on the mountainsides, waterfalls, images of Mont Blanc, and this little fellow here...
Ibex, by Osbie
More Mountains, by Osbie
No, this one isn't Etna, although the effect might be similar. In fact it's Stac Pollaidh on its two minute cigarette break at work ... It comes from John Arthur's NW Highlands Aug 06 album where you can find further atmospheric, watery and mountainous shots, although sadly none with quite the same cloud effect:-)
Stac Pollaidh smoking! by John Arthur
This shot of Scarth Gap comes from an album we've visited many times in the weekly gallery round up. Andy Wallace's Share the Fell Walking Experience album now extends to twelve, highly-rated pages. It's well worth a browse through all of them and you'll probably end up stopping around to vote for a a few photos as well. It seems that's what all the other visitors to Andy's gallery pages have done so why break the habit now?:-)
Scarth Gap, by Andy Wallace
Marcus Crompton's Welsh 3000s album has a bit of a weather theme - sunshine, fog, damp, and 'gloamin' all get a mention - but more noticeable still is the humour in the captions. Take 'Sunshine on Yr Ainy Day' for example, or 'Nearl-y Garn'. Perhaps Marcus is trying to tell us something about what it takes to stay the course? It looks pretty tempting at times - Crib Goch rearing out of the mist is positively haunting - but if anyone's getting too carried away they might want to take a quick look at 'The Suffering South Ridge' before they jump in the car and head for Snowdonia.
Damp Terraces to Nant Peris, by Marcus Crompton
And finally, it won't be beach sunset season for much longer, so we'll make the most of it while it lasts. This one stands alone in Chris' album...
Sunset, by Chris Buckman
That's it for this week. If anyone's looking for an ideal outdoors photo-taking opportunity, remember it's the OM meet in Eskdale this coming weekend, where you can go for a walk (and a pint), get out your camera, and try out some GPS systems and clothing as well. Everyone welcome. If you can't make it though, it's good to see your photos wherever you've been - remember, everyone gets a free 3MB of space for their own images.
