Montserrat: A Dusting of Snow

Snowfall, #45, Montserrat, Catalunya, 2026

“A lot of people like snow. I find it to be an unnecessary freezing of water.”
― Carl Reiner, 1922-2020, American actor, writer, and comedian

“Well, I know now. I know a little more how much a simple thing like a snowfall can mean to a person”
― Sylvia Plath, 1932-1963, American poet and author

Perspective

Two very different perspectives on snow are quoted above… and two very different lives lived. Carl would stick around for 98 years and produce a son we remember as Rob Reiner. Sylvia would die by suicide at the age of 30. But both would leave a major cultural legacy.

The snow usually stays up in the Pyrenees, but it does occasionally find its way down to lower elevations nearer the Mediterranean coast. Today was such a day. Since I identify a lot more with Sylvia’s perspective than Carl’s, I loaded up the car and headed off to my favorite haunt, Montserrat.

The Images

Once again, I used the Nikon D850 on a tripod with the Nikkor 70-200mm f/4 lens. I set mirror lock-up and a three-second delay on the shutter so I had no need of a remote–just press the shutter button and three seconds later (after any camera shake has hopefully subsided), it all happens. Processed through Adobe Elements and Nik Silver Efex Pro.

These files are pretty big, by the way, and could easily make very large prints (out of the camera they are roughly 30 x 20 inches, or 76 x 50cm, at 300ppi)

This shows how much snow actually accumulated–maybe an inch or so at best. I was hoping for more, but alas.

The temperature at the start of the morning was -3 degrees Celsius (27 degrees Fahrenheit)…

Snowfall, #3, Montserrat, Catalunya, 2026

An empty highway leads to La Cadireta (which at some point in geologic time will fall down upon said highway). To me La Cadireta (“the Little Chair”) somewhat resembles Homer Simpson’s facial profile, no?

Snowfall, #6, Montserrat, Catalunya, 2026

Playing with some backlighting…

Snowfall, #25, Montserrat, Catalunya, 2026

Trees were one of the main themes of the day as, on this particular trip, they seemed to catch my eye almost more than the massive rock formations above. Here we have the what we might call the “Three Brothers”…

Snowfall, #29, Montserrat, Catalunya, 2026

This gorgeous and proud tree, with its leaning neighbor, stood out and was the focus of my attention for a good while as the mist drifted through. I came away with a number of different angles and compositions (some with the iconic Cavall Bernat needle in the background). Here are three…

Snowfall, #28, Montserrat, Catalunya, 2026

Snowfall, #31, Montserrat, Catalunya, 2026

If you look closely here, you can see a very small pointy object atop Cavall Bernat (“Bernat’s Horse”). That is a bulky and heavy aluminum modernist likeness of La Moreneta, the “Black Virgin”, the patroness saint of Catalunya (who currently sits above the altar at the Montserrat Monastery church and is reverently visited by millions of the faithful).

The very first, and much smaller (a mere 90kg!), stone statue of the Virgen was hauled to the summit on the back of a climber in 1945, but at some point it was unfortunately vandalized and thrown overboard into the abyss. The current statue, which weighs 240 kilograms (about 530 pounds) was lowered on to the summit by helicopter in the fall of 1987. Today’s climbers use it as a super-solid summit belay and rappel anchor (as well as for spiritual encouragement, one would suppose!)…

Snowfall, #32, Montserrat, Catalunya, 2026

A different and more intimate perspective showing the contrast between the vines (now in winter mode) and the speckled conglomerate rock of the massif…