View from Diavolezza

View from Diavolezza

When I stepped off the Rhätische Bahn train at Val Bernina, the base station for the cable car to the
top of Diavolezza, it did not look promising for photography, with a heavy overcast obscuring the view.

But, as the cable car broke out of the clouds, smiles broke out on passengers, myself very much included, as the majesty of the highest peaks in the Bernina Range of Switzerland's Canton Graubünden provided a stunning autumn panorama.

One can see the Val Bernina, far below, was still shrouded in cloud.

Diavolezza (lit: "Little She Devil") tops out at 2,973 metres (9,754 ft).

From a Kodachrome-25 transparency shot in October 2010 (on a trip planned around giving my remaining freezer "stash" of this favorite iconic Kodak film its very best chances to shine before the last Kodachrome lab in the world was to shut down its K-14 processing line at year's end). At the time, I was new to film scanning and found Kodachromes presented something of a steep learning curve, and I was not thrilled with my initial result. But, as I consider the alpine views in the Upper Engadine timeless, another, more successful, go at the image, is presented here tonight for the first time.

©2022 Steve Ember