Over the first weekend in May we drove to Vorarlberg to photograph a few Alpine passes. On the first day, unfortunately, it poured down on the way to the Silvretta High Alpine Road, but the cloud-draped mountains still offered some lovely subjects in this light. At the High Alpine Road we found out that it was closed until the end of May. So we quickly checked into the hotel and walked up the road on foot. It was great fun – after all, you don’t get to tramp up a pass with all its lovely bends on your own every day. The western climb from Partenen up to the Bielerhöhe alone has 32 hairpins over around 15 kilometres; the toll road is normally only open from May into the autumn. Here are the pictures from the first day:
Streaks from the ceiling lamps converge in the road tunnel, in black and white.Spruces stand on the rock edge as fog drifts past the face, in black and white.The stream between the spruces is full of stones, the mountain behind lost in fog.A rocky knoll rises out of the fog above the conifer forest.Black forest silhouettes remain beneath the dense fog, in black and white.Beneath the concrete bridge stands a person with a rucksack, only a silhouette, in black and white.The curved steel girder of the bridge, with its railing, fills the frame, in black and white.Almost nothing but grey sky, with a narrow band of snowy peaks on the Silvretta.Jagged snowy peaks stand above a dense bank of cloud, in black and white.The spruce ridge sits in the fog, with almost nothing but pale sky above.Between forest and snowy peaks, a person stands on the roof of the small brick hut.The Silvretta High Alpine Road is still closed, and a person with a rucksack stands in the bend.The tall power pylon carries its lines in front of foggy mountains, in black and white.A bright stream runs through the steep, partly snowy wooded gorge, in black and white.The broken, mossy stump stands beside the spruce in the mountain forest.A spruce twig lies on the dark asphalt beside the white edge line.The stone with the yellow „7“ sits out of focus in front of the hairpins in the forest.The lines hang from the red-and-white pylon with the yellow platform above the forest.Snow still lies on the curve island, one of 32 bends between Partenen and the Bielerhöhe.Yellow grass on the steep slope, a snow-covered ridge in the fog opposite.Shoes rest on the stone with the yellow „7“, the hairpins in the background.The tight hairpin runs around the gravel, the rock face on the left, in black and white.Dense fog, and in it only a small hilltop with a few trees.Spruce tips reach into the white fog only on the right, in black and white.The dark rock face with ochre grass on the right, the snowy ridge in the fog on the left.A few spruces stand on the rock edge to the right, the valley vanishing into fog on the left.
