Alpine Glory

Inspired by the images from this weeks this+this=that assignment my thoughts have been fixated on the mountains, the Alps in particular. (I don't think there are any Chevy Tahoes or Ihop's above 12,000 feet!) I've gathered some of my most recent inspirations including vintage posters of the Matterhorn in Zermatt, prior to bourgeois influx, by IanL -view his full set of images of the Matterhorn here

A series of mountain paintings by UK artist nicolasvous and a recent graphite drawing by Edinburgh based artist Lizzy Stewart both enjoyed for their simplicity (a pure graphite drawing of a mountain is a rare find these days!) Victorian era's influx of Brits with their new passion for the Alps produced many mountain landscapes, even Sargent painted the Italian Alps! 

Long live British mountaineering! 

This week also announces the opening of the much anticipated film North Face,or Nordwand, which is a dramatic documentation of a true story about a classic struggle to scale the Eiger's north face during Nazi era Germany. It comes out this Friday, Jan. 29, 2010. I've posted a thrilling teaser trailer of the film below, "don't try this at home..."

I also found a beautiful photo of the the Eiger at twilight from the Hotel Bodmi just above Grindelwald by mountain man2007 a stunning photograph that needs to be seen in it's large format here -where you can see 2 pinpricks of light in the north face of the mountain. These are the windows of the tunnelled cog railway that spirals thru' the Eiger up to the Jungfraujoc.

And finally, in the Italian Dolomites there are ski-in restaurants that had been old mountain huts called refugios. After reading about Cortina d'Ampezzo in yesterday's NY Times (in which they were reviewed) we're packing our skis and Merrell boots. When combined with the mountains the alpine food of goulashes, knodel, and venison steak are too strong a draw to pass up!

Yo-deleh-hee-hoo!

"On tops of mountains, as everywhere to hopeful souls, it is always morning," Thoreau 

(ps don't forget to submit your inspired work from this+this=that by this Friday!)