I hike regularly, mostly in the mountains. In this passing year 2021, I hiked almost every single Saturday. My count - and this is only official trails in mountains in Poland/Czechia/Slovakia - is over 1300km. I therefore have plenty of photos and memories. I can easily retrieve them from my Travelfeed blog. What is not that easy, however, is which nature picture is the best? The most amazing? I will give it a go. Happy to hear back from you!
January
I started the year from a high note. I chose Mt Giewont in the Polish Tatras. Not daring to actually climb any rocky peaks in winter, I hiked around the mountain. Perfect weather on cold, but sunny winter day. Clear blue skies, sharp peaks covered with snow. Fantastic start of the year! More on this trip here in Polish and in Spanish.
February
When I parked my car at the foothills of the Gorce Mts, my car showed the temperature was -15°C. However, the RealFeel must have been much lower. We hiked about 15km in deep snow and freezing cold. We didn't have any panoramic views. Still, the serene silence of winter was striking. More photos in this post in English and a full story in Polish.
March
The winter was quite long this year. Most of hiking trips in March were still in snow. I have picked a photo from Beskid Wyspowy Mts. The name of the range translates as "Insular Mountains". It is a set of mostly lone peaks, separated by deep valleys. The mountain capture on my March photo is called Śnieżnica, which translates as "Snowy Mountain". How fitting! More photos and full story in Polish.
April
I had COVID in April and it limited my explorations. When I recovered, I first set off for my favorite range - Gorce Mts. Easy route, just to check my breathing and after-COVID shape. My reward was a montane meadow full of crocuses. Perfect transition from winter to spring. More photos here - story in Polish.
May
Okay, enough pictures with snow. Time for some green. On the last Saturday of May I hiked on a rainy day in a forest in the Beskid Mały Mts. I called my blog post "fifty shades of green" (text in Polish, though). The fresh green of spring is best presented on a misty day. What you see on the photo, is a sprout of a beech tree. Amazing how small and insignificant is the beginning of the life of such a big tree as the beech is!
June
I organized a couple of group trips in the course of the past year. The first was in June. Using a long weekend, we hiked in the Sudety Mts in western Poland. The photo is from a long, over 30km trek along the main ridge of Karkonosze, the highest range in Sudety Mts and forming the border between Czechia and Poland. Hiking on a ridge is usually a pleasant experience and doesn't require much effort (except for getting up there...). We had broad panoramic views on both sides. At times the trail would approach the edge of the ridge and there we could the sheer depth of valleys below. The photo shows one of such places and there's a post-glacial lake at the bottom of it. More in this post (in Polish).
July
The photo of July must be from my week-long hiking in Bieszczady Mts, the most remote corner of Poland. I could write an #amazingnature post with a photo of the day, rather than a month! Having to choose one, I selected a picture of a black horse by sunset. When saw it, I just stood motionless and didn't want to break the spell of that precious moment. Full story in Polish.
August
Leaving Poland for a moment (and just across the border into Czechia), my photo selected for August is a lonely tree on top of Mt. Králický Sněžník. The photo was taken shortly after the sunrise. I like how the first rays of sun bring the best of colors from the mountain plants. And that lonely tree is truly amazing. See and read more - in Polish.
September
On the first weekend of autumn I went to Slovakia and hiked in the High Tatras. We had absolutely fantastic weather (check out more photos here, text in Polish). I love so much the high, rigged peaks and how they contrast with clear blue sky. The best views however, were not the peaks. We stopped by a post-glacial lake called "Zelené Pleso" (it means "green lake"). It immaculately calm and created a perfect mirror for the surrounding peaks.
October
We are back to Poland, I had no problems selecting a photo for October. The month was perfect in terms of weather and I saw all the colors of autumn every single time I hiked. Still, my favorite photo is a pine clinging to a rock over the deep Dunajec gorge (300m down). The pine had been damaged both by nature (winds) and humans (a rescue helicopter...) and only one branch was left. Still, the pine is alive and doesn't give up. #amazingnature indeed! Full story again in Polish - do check it for fantastic autumn mountain scenery.
November
Pleasant autumn weather continued into November. Hydrologists were raising alarms that the month was usually dry. I didn't complain, though, and enjoying hiking.
The photo was taken in Beskid Niski Mts (and I haven't written a blog post yet, sorry...) shortly before sunset. Against the rules of photography, it's made towards the light. I like however how the mountains for horizontal stripes with different shades. Then we see the lonely green trees in the foreground and the sky going slightly into pinkish, pre-dusk, color in the background.
December
I am currently in Denmark. No mountains here, but I can easily find hiking grounds. Last Saturday I trekked around the Råbjerg Mile migrating dunes, following the North Sea Trail. On 23km hike I met two people! Migrating dunes are pure #amazingnature in themselves. But I enjoyed a wide variety of views and, depending on the part of the day, the dominating colors were shades of respectively red, blue, green and finally yellow. The photo of the month was taken on a heath lit by early morning sun. In the background you can see outlines of sand dunes. This is time the full story is available in English.
Wrap-up
Did you enjoy the photos? I did. And I did enjoy the hikes. All of them. Those with clear skies and those on foggy days. Nature is amazing and I never have enough of it!