Last Sunday I escaped the sad, grey and depressing city life to take a look at if the sun still exists... And yes, I found it - and this is how the world (at least a part of central Europe) looks from the 1800m high peak of Rigi Kulm, close to Luzern:

These are the Glarner Alpen with Glärnisch (Mythen in front) on the left
http://www.socio.ch/maro/images/rigi2.JPG

The city of Luzern would be somewhere under the clouds on the right...
http://www.socio.ch/maro/images/rigi1.JPG

You see the very small spot on the left after the three long hills that reach out of the clouds (Albis)? - This is Uetliberg and behind it is the center of Zurich - somewhere :)
http://www.socio.ch/maro/images/rigi3.gif
BTW: just in the middle of the pic you can see the city of Zug... well, you can't ;)

And the last one, a view towards the Vierwaldstättersee, Luzern and Mount Pilatus:
http://www.socio.ch/maro/images/rigi4.jpg

Hope you like it and could also get some sun like now :)

BTW: it gave me a slight impression how Switzerland looked during the last Ice Age - I could literally see the mammoths, reindeers and Cro Magnons crossing the "glaciers"...

:eek2: :eek2: WOW :eek2: :eek2:
Beautiful; really it seems to stand on an isle sorrounded by a sea made of clouds!

This is the edge of the sea... how it looks on the last pic the other end is somewhere close to Hamburg I guess :)

But anyway - this is exactly what Rigi is famous for. Mark Twain gave the mountain also a world-wide reputation, although he never managed to see the sunrise, or how was this story going? ;)

Thanks alot for those pics. Seeing the sun is not easy nowadays. Here in Frankfurt its exactly the same situation for over two weeks now. Everyday the same low clouds with fog and chemical snow. But on the only 800m high Feldberg you can have cloudless skies with mild temperatures.

Between, those pics show how Switzerland will look like after global warming. Just switch the clouds with water. Lovely coast with some islands, lagunes, bays and cliffs.

That's true :) But you will be totally lost in Frankfurt then, because even the Feldberg (didn't know that you have also one, know only the one close to Freiburg/Basel) will be flooded. The fog was here at about 850m... :)

Kuesel: great pics! did you hike or drive to the summit to take pics?? :D

does that fog 'layer' subside during the day or night, or does it remain situated for the winter season??

i imagine spring must be incredibly beautiful with fog dissipating and sun rising ;)

greetings from sunny aspen colorado

No, I didn't walk up :) And the fog is seldom lifting from Nov to Jan - sometimes not for months. Luzern had once 10 weeks NO sunshine - people go crazy. If you buy postcards on Rigi it's ALWAYS with fog ;)

Spring is beautiful but October is the best - far view, beautiful warm and dry air and not fog :) But the latter is somehow a MUST here...

How is it in Aspen? You have these inversions as well?

thnx Kuesel :)

i'm considering spending time in your fair country soon, trying to decide exactly where/when i should locate--most likely for about 3-4months time...

your home town appeals as a great fusion of urbanity and nature!! are there other localities which compete or excel over Zurich in this exact regard?

life in aspen is quite blessed--the vast deserts of utah and nevada (and arizona and california) provide entrance buffer for most all weather patterns that move east directly past us, so weather is actually dryest during winter and 'monsoon-like' for summer with daily 1-hr.-long torrid rainfalls--the dry air creates legendary 'dry powder' of the rocky mountains (particularly the southern section of the rockies--as you move farther north in the rockies it becomes wetter as the west of that region is less-desert topography: central section (Wyoming) is wetter--northern (Canada) is wettest)...

how does Swiss snow rate relative to the US Southern Rockies????

Mammoth Mountain in the Sierra mountain range of California is legendary for massive amounts of snowfall, but the snow is often considered "heavy" due to high moisture/density content--

the nickname we have here for that type of snow is "Sierra Cement"... ;)

surreal images , very nice

Nice pictures, you should really think about becoming a photographer! :)...

Impressive views!!! It's just like I imagined paradise above the skies. It's sunny, beautiful and you can watch people from above. Did you meet God there? :angel1: :angel: :angel1:

Simply amazing photos! Well done!

Thanks a lot... no I didn't meet God - in Bavaria they say "Grüss Gott" for "hello", but so high up I didn't go, it's only 1800 meters and I am a bit too agnostic for him or her (love the Marillion song "when I meet god" anyway :)). But Mark Twain made the mountain quite famous.

still in the fog Kuesel??

;)

No, in the snow - but with fog :) Here in Zurich the fog lasts only a few weeks in Nov/Dec. But in Luzern it can be that there is no sunlight for 3 months!