Today we’re in the midst of the first “real” snowfall of the year. It’s a wet, heavy snow, common early in the winter when it’s not as cold as it will get around here.

After completing the first pass of clearing the driveway with the snowblower this morning, it seemed a good day to finish going through the photos Youngest Son and I took this year while hiking through many mountains. There are a lot of them as you’d expect in this age of digital photography.

I don’t have any of the few photos I took when I started hiking back in the 1970s and 80s. On several occasions I did haul my old Konica SLR and various lenses up some big hills, but over the years I’ve parted with the prints and negatives. Unfortunate- I recall a really nice black & white series I shot facing south on the summit of Mt. Washington one sunrise, capturing only the summits of mountains poking through the clouds below. I wish I still had those negatives.

No matter! Today the phones we all carry take better photos than most of the professional gear from the olden days, and they’re a heck of a lot lighter. They don’t run out of film, either.

Below is a gallery of sixteen of the photos I thought were among the best taken on our hikes and climbs since last May. They’re presented in gallery format to allow enlarging individual photos with a click, a feature the WordPress slideshow formatting lacks. Pictures with a “BR” in the caption were taken by Youngest Son.

In any collection of photos, some stand out to me more than others. Here are three photographs I think are better than the average snapshot. 

What I consider the best photo from the trails this year is below, taken while we were hiking up a dark and dank Champney Falls Trail last August, heading for the summit of Mt. Chocorua. It was our first real look at the sun that day as it crested the ridge.

I hope you enjoyed the photos- thanks for stopping by!