Snow and ice

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In fact, Ruapehu is a name that includes a number of peaks, of which the tallest is Tahurangi (2797 m), whereas a striking pointed peak is Girdlestone (2658 m). Initially, this mountain was named Little Matterhorn Peak by Hubert Earle Girdlestone (1879-1918), a New Zealand explorer and war hero, who was killed in France in 1918. His friends installed a plaque on the mountain in 1922, renaming it Girdlestone Peak.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Foliage and wood of this species are burned as incense at Buddhist and Hindu shrines, and near the Pangboche Buddhist Monastery in Khumbu, eastern Nepal, is a sacred growth of this tree, depicted on the page Religion: Animism.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The generic name is from the Greek gala (‘milk’) and anthos (‘flower’), referring to the white flowers of the genus, whereas the specific name nivalis (‘of the snow’) refers to the early flowering of common snowdrop. The name snowdrop first appeared in 1633, in the book Great Herball by English herbalist John Gerard (c. 1545-1612). (In the first edition of his book, Gerard had named it the timely flowring bulbus violet.) The word snowdrop may be a translation of the German word Schneetropfen – a type of earring, which was popular in those days. Other common English names include February fairmaids, dingle-dangle, Candlemas bells, Mary’s tapers, and, in Yorkshire, snow piercers. (Sources: M. Bishop, A. Davis & J. Grimshaw 2002. Snowdrops: A Monograph of Cultivated Galanthus. Griffin Press, and R. Mabey 1996. Flora Britannica. Sinclair-Stevenson)

An old legend relates that when Adam and Eve were expelled from the Garden of Eden, they experienced dark and cold for the first time, and Eve sat down on the cold ground and wept. An angel appeared before her, caught a snow flake in his hand and blew on it. The water drop fell to the ground, and a snowdrop appeared. This gave comfort to Eve, who began to have new hope.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chortens, prayer flags, and other Buddhist structures are described on the page Religion: Buddhism.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In spring 1991, together with Lars Nørgaard Hansen, I undertook a very interesting hike to this valley, related on the page Plants – Plant hunting in the Himalaya: The rhododendron valley.

Below, four winter impressions from this trip are presented.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The snow goose is a bird of the New World, breeding mainly in northern Canada and Alaska, with small populations in Greenland and north-eastern Siberia. It spends the winter along the Pacific coast, from southern British Columbia southwards, and also in southern United States and Mexico.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Poplars are native to the major part of the Northern Hemisphere, from subarctic areas southwards to Mexico, North Africa, Iran, the Himalaya, and China.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The generic name is from a French word, aigrette, meaning ‘little heron’. In 1782, the specific name, thula, was given to this bird by a mistake by Chilean Jesuit priest and naturalist Juan Ignacio Molina (1740-1829), who didn’t realize that in fact thula was the local Mapuduncun name for the black-necked swan (Cygnus melancoryphus).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The generic name is from the Greek plektron (‘cock’s spur’) and phenax (‘imposter’, i.e. ‘replacement’). This probably alludes to the shorter claw on the hindfoot of these birds, compared to their close relatives, the longspurs (Calcarius). The specific name is from the Latin nix (‘snow’) and -alis (‘like’), of course referring to the plumage of this bird.

Previously, snow buntings were placed in the bunting family (Emberizidae), but recent DNA research has concluded that they, together with the longspurs, form a separate family, Calcariidae.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In 2013, following genetic research, it was suggested that Kolkwitzia and other genera should be included in the genus Linnaea, which, until then, contained a single species, the twin flower (Linnaea borealis) – the favourite plant of Swedish naturalist Carolus Linnaeus (1707-1778), also called Carl von Linné. As he was also quite fond of himself, he decided to name this plant Linnaea!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Below, four impressions from these mountains are presented.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One very striking mountain is the double-peaked Ama Dablam (6812 m), which is sacred to the local Sherpa people. In Nepali, the name means ‘mother’s necklace’. The long ridges on either side of the highest peak are likened to the arms of a mother (ama), spread out to protect her child, whereas the hanging glacier on the mountain is likened to a dablam, the traditional necklace worn by Sherpa women.

My late friend John Burke (1951-2010), who joined me on my first hike to the Khumbu, loved Ama Dablam, and he took the striking picture below, depicting Sherpa women, passing in front of the snow-clad peak. Our hike is related on the page Travel episodes – India & Nepal 1978: Journey towards Everest.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In his fairy tale The Ugly Duckling, Danish poet Hans Christian Andersen relates the fate of a cygnet, which is ostracized by its fellow fowl in a farmyard, where it has been hatched together with ducklings. It has to undergo much suffering, before it realizes that it has matured into a beautiful swan. In reality, this story is about the fate of Andersen himself.

The mute swan is native to northern Europe, from southern Norway and southern Finland, southwards to southern France and Romania, and from Ireland eastwards to western Russia and Ukraine, and with patchy breeding occurrence in the Balkans, Turkey, and Central Asia, eastwards to southern Siberia, Mongolia, and northern China. It has also been introduced elsewhere, including North America, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa.

As opposed to the other northern European swans, the whooper swan (C. cygnus) and Bewick’s swan (C. columbianus ssp. bewickii), the mute swan is not very vocal, hence the popular name mute. The name Cygnus is a Latinized form of the Greek kyknos (‘swan’), whereas olor is Latin, also meaning ‘swan’.

The winter is a hard time for these birds, and in severe weather conditions, many succumb to cold and starvation.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Until recently, the official name of this mountain was Egmont, thus named by British explorer and captain James Cook (1728-1779), in honour of John Perceval, 2nd Earl of Egmont (1711-1770), who, as former First Lord of the Admiralty, had supported the search for Terra Australis Incognita.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The generic name is from the Greek hippos (‘horse’) and oura (‘tail’), thus horsetail. In English, it is also sometimes called horsetail, although this name is usually reserved for species of the genus Equisetum. Previously, Hippuris was the only genus in the family Hippuridaceae, but has now been moved to the plantain family (Plantaginaceae).

Common mare’s tail is utilized in herbal medicine for treatment of wounds, stomach ulcers, and internal and external bleeding.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

American botanist, chemist, and physician John Torrey (1796-1873) found the colour of this plant so striking that he named it Sarcodes sanguinea, from the Greek sarkos (‘flesh’) and the Latin sanguis (‘blood’), thus ‘the blood-coloured fleshy one’. The common name refers to the early flowering of this species, which often appears, when snow is still covering the ground.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Especially beautiful are the male trees in spring, when they display thousands of golden-yellow catkins, which are much visited by bees and bumble bees, as the goat willow is among the earliest suppliers of nectar and pollen. An old Danish name of the species was palm willow. In the days, when people in Denmark were Catholics, flowering branches of goat willow were utilized to adorn the churches on Palm Sunday.

Previously, this species was utilized for numerous purposes. The foliage was a good animal feed, and even today it is utilized as fodder for sheep and goats in certain parts of Norway. The thinnest branches were made into various items, including fish traps and baskets. Today, branches of osier (Salix viminalis) are used, as they are more suitable. Due to the light and tough wood, slightly thicker branches were made into tool handles and fences, the trunk into e.g. furniture.

Wicks were made from the seed hairs, which were also stuffed into quilts and also used as lining in coats. The bark contains tannins and was formerly used for tanning of animal hides. The bark also contains a glycoside, salicin, which was previously used as a febrifuge in the form of salicylic acid, which is today produced chemically.

Most of these old utilizations have today gone out of use. One particular usage takes place in the Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde, Denmark, where pegs for the reconstruction of viking ships are made from goat willow wood.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

No less than five vegetation zones are represented in this park: subtropical, lower temperate, upper temperate, subalpine, and alpine, containing large tracts of forest, comprising species of oak (Quercus), maple (Acer), Rhododendron, Himalayan birch (Betula utilis), Himalayan silver fir (Abies spectabilis), Himalayan hemlock (Tsuga dumosa), blue pine (Pinus wallichiana), and others. These forests are home to several threatened animals, including snow leopard (Uncia uncia), red panda (Ailurus fulgens), and a gorgeous pheasant, the satyr tragopan (Tragopan satyra).

The Gosainkund Lakes, comprising altogether 54 lakes, are all sacred to Hindus. Every year, during Full Moon in July or August, thousands of devout pilgrims undertake the demanding hike to these lakes to have a cleansing bath in their icy waters. Orthodox Hindus wish to bathe in all 54 lakes.

My adventures in this area are related on the pages Travel episodes – Nepal 2009: Across a snow-covered pass, and Plants – Plant hunting in the Himalaya: Around sacred lakes of Shiva. Hinduism is dealt with in detail on the page Religion: Hinduism.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The nest of this species is built near the seashore, lined with down, which the female plucks from her own breast. This soft down has been harvested by people for hundreds of years, used as filling in pillows, quilts, and jackets. This harvesting was done with no harm to the birds, as it took place when the ducklings had left the nest.

The scientific name is derived from the Greek soma (‘body’) and erion (‘wool’), and the Latin mollissimus (‘very soft indeed’), all referring to soft down feathers. The name eider is a corruption of the Icelandic name of the bird, æðarfugl, which is derived from the Old Norse æðr.

In Northumberland, southern Scotland, the eider duck is known as the cuddy duck, named after Saint Cuthbert (c. 634-687), a monk, bishop, and hermit of the early Northumbrian Celtic church. While on the Farne Islands, he instigated special laws to protect the ducks and other seabirds, nesting on these islands.