Hazy sun beams light up the lesser peaks and valleys below during a vivid sunset from one of my favorite summits in the Shenandoah. Unfortunately, due to the extreme snowpack coated with an inch of ice, I wasn’t able to get to the primary viewpoint, so I had to settle for this spot instead.

As much as I would’ve loved to see the entirety of the sunset, hiking up to this point was brutal enough over the ice; I feared trying to get back down in the dark, even with my headlamp, would’ve been near impossible without slipping and busting my rear or sticking my foot into a crevice it wasn’t supposed to go in. Wish I could’ve continued shooting for another twenty minutes, but this was basically the last shot I got before tossing my gear in the bag and beginning the extremely slick trudge back to the car. December 2020.