Spring 2023. The sun rises at summit on Mount Rose. The shadows stretch out, taking advantage of the stillness of the new dawn to envelop the triumphant mountains. Only a few hours ago, the fury of the winds had whitened their rock with thick snow. After fending off the storm's onslaught, the colossus of Mount Rose emerges blissfully from a mirage-like sea of mist. Opposite us, Dufourspitze, summit the highest mountain in the Swiss Alps, seems to reach for the sky on the border between Valais and Italy. Its impressive scale is amplified by the Nordend to its left and the bold silhouettes of the Parrotspitze and Ludwigshöhe on the horizon.

As we journey through the striking details of this ultra-high-definition photographic portrait, our eyes are filled with wonder. The work is both delicate and profound. See how, from shadow to light, the pathway leads to summit on Dufourspitze. At this unchanging moment, several roped parties climb the mountain over its crevasses. So many memories come back to me as I contemplate this picture! I dream every day of making another ascent of Mount Rose, of climbing the peaks of the Spaghetti Tour, by other routes, in other conditions. Because exploring the high mountains is a unique and ever-changing adventure. Unpredictable, untamed nature reveals its beauty to us like a rose unravels and metamorphoses over the course of its life.

I love the frosted armour worn by Mount Rose and Dufourspitze. Their eternal snows made vulnerable. The gaping crevasses that criss-cross the mountains, indelible scars of the successive droughts that have struck the Alps. Sumptuous cracks that vibrate for the artist like an ode to the beauty of the sky. But for the mountaineer, a fearsome rift is the harbinger of a terrible tragedy. The faults revealed sublimate the magnificence of Dufourspitze as much as they testify to the fragility of the Alps.