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I've felt quite fortunate to be able to view the 'Spectre of the Brocken' on several occasions. The first time was also on Whiteface on a morning I had gone up early to photograph the view of the High Peaks and Lake Placid area. After the sun was up a bit, the fog started moving from the valley up the western slope of Whiteface. I was walking back toward the stairs and had gone out onto a ledge for a last look, when I noticed my shadow seemingly going on forever into the rising mist - and around my shadow appeared a faint circular rainbow. Then just as quickly as it appeared, it dissapeared into the mist.
I stayed on the ledge, waiting for the next gentle cloud to form and rise up the slope of the mountain, and again saw the 'spectre'. I managed to photograph the phenomena, but the results just never quite match the feeling of depth of the shadow and rainbow when you're there. Another time my daughter and I had skiied up the toll road, and were both on the summit with the clouds breaking in the late afternoon, and again saw the 'spectre' - also know as Ulloa's Rings. On this occasion, in late October 1998, when I had biked up with my son, I had my Roundshot camera and was able to photograph the full 360 view from the summit. The setting sun gilded the clouds forming over the summit to the west with a warm golden glow, while the darker shadow of the mountain summit fell off to the east like a ghostly apparition on the clouds with beautiful colored rings of light surrounding our own shadows on the receding mist. |
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