It’s a perfect autumn morning in Pretty Valley. The grass and tents are frosted with ice, the air is cold and invigorating, the silence immense. Sitting and waiting for the sunlight to spread across the plains from the hills to the west, it feels so silent you can hear the earth itself humming. In the shallow valley below, white mists form above the marshy landscape and braided waterways, rising until they meet a temperature inversion, which creates a ceiling effect that stops further upward movement. The flat topped mists then flow slowly towards the south east. Finally, the sun starts to warm my back. The air fills with bird call, the parrots sweep through, chitting as they fly past. After a cold night, it seems like everyone and everything is glad to be alive this morning.
December 11 is designated by the UN as international mountain day.
In the promo for the day, the UN notes:
“Almost one billion people live in mountain areas, and over half the human population depends on mountains for water, food and clean energy. Yet mountains are under threat from climate change, land degradation, over exploitation and natural disasters, with potentially far-reaching and devastating consequences, both for mountain communities and the rest of the world”.
True. But today I feel like ignoring the (very real) threats to the mountains we know and love, and instead focus on how much the existence of mountains improves our lives.
Mountain Journal 
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