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When Darkness Meets Light

Mt. Washington Sunrise

By Ashley KuplinPublished 4 years ago 5 min read
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Mt. Washington, New Hampshire

It was late January when my friend asked me last minute to embark on this novel adventure with her, one that would require waking at 3:00 a.m. in order to be able to meet the requisite of connecting with the rest of our crew at the base of Mt. Washington, New Hampshire.

If you don't know anything about Mt. Washington, just know this: The summit of this mountain holds some of the coldest and harshest temperatures ever recorded on Earth. Amongst some of the harshest wind speeds ever recorded, sometimes reaching over 200 MPH, temperatures with windchill factored into the equation can reach downwards to -100 degrees!

As luck would have it, on this particular day, the temperature at ground level was 0 degrees Fahrenheit. It was “an absolutely GORGEOUS day," our guides informed us, to be able to scale the slope of this beast of a mountain.

We departed at 6:00 a.m. in a caravan of 3 Snowcats, or what can better be described as vans but with snow tracks instead of wheels. As we climbed, the twilight of morning started to emerge. The trees began to distinguish themselves amongst the shadows. Fresh, windswept snow coated fallen trees and rocks. Everything was quiet and peaceful. It was hard to believe the reputation this stunning peak had created for itself!

And yet we climbed higher. Patiently, we came to realize that we had crept beyond both tree and skyline, and the world began to have the ever so subtle hint of a glow -- Though darkness still reigned -- Piercing, heavy, and thick.

The surrounding ranges, undeterred, continued to emanate a beautiful, ghostly white radiance that could only be overlooked by the materialization of a more modest, slender, and faint orange band slowly stretching across the horizon. Just previously this dainty orange line had been all but invisible in its separation of Sky from Earth, but now was cracking the very casing of night itself with a brilliant and determined light.

Finally, we reached the top. With wind chills factored in, it turned out that the high of Mt. Washington that morning was in fact -36 degrees! We had timed it perfectly, and with the sunrise well underway, we were encouraged to take it all in, either inside or outside of the Snowcats.

It’s hard to explain unless you’ve ever experienced it for yourself, but when it’s that cold, any sort of skin exposure at all becomes instantly numbing, yet inexplicably burns at the same time. Even without having direct skin exposed to this kind of cold, one can only bare standing in it for minutes at a time. Needless to say, everyone fortunate to be up there that morning would still take frequent breaks to go back into the Snowcats to “de-thaw” before being able to muster going back out to brave the experience in the raw.

And believe me, it was worth it!

These precious minutes were enlightening ones for me, figuratively and literally speaking. However, little did I know at the time the extent to which these precious moments were also going to dazzlingly foreshadow everything to follow shortly thereafter.

~

2020 has been nothing if not extreme, distinct, and of course, novel. We have watched the world be brought to its knees due to a rampant virus that grew to become a global pandemic. We have watched our Nation’s economy teeter on the verge of collapse, with millions of people out of work and pay, while stunningly, larger than life industries have needed to be bailed out. We have watched tensions rise as people have begun to brave taking to the streets.

Hunkered down in our homes, or, much like that morning on Mount Washington, huddled in our Snowcats… We wait. We wait to outlast the hostile climate that has us completely engulfed from all sides. And as we wait, we watch. Stunned and numb, but yet, somehow mesmerized, nonetheless.

Is it not after the darkest of nights when the dawn brings its most brilliant light? Is it not after the longest of storms when the sun dotes its warmth on us most graciously? Is it not the bottom most depth one falls before the most critical of revelations chooses to finally reveal itself?

We tend to think of the word “enlightenment” to mean only the revelation of great truths. However, somehow, we overlook the most important mechanism of enlightenment in that we don’t fully appreciate what it means to “reveal.”

Like the bare branches of each and every tree reveals the true integrity of the entire forest; Like the arid void of lifelessness that creates a vacuum of soundless peace; Like the breathtaking sharpness in Winter’s bite reignites our paramount nature of our will to survive… Sometimes it takes a Great Unmasking for us to face our truest, most vulnerable, and sometimes least beautiful selves.

It takes moments of hostility, turbulence, and opposition to highlight critical contrasts most needing to be explored in order to help pave a new way forward.

It takes moments of silence and stillness to be able to process and appreciate the intricacies of these contrasts, and to be able to see them with depth and clarity.

And most importantly, it takes a key moment in time for these relatively counterintuitive conditions to align just right.

We cannot appreciate the new dawn without first appreciating that we must move forward from the night. We cannot appreciate the reprieve of the night until after we have exuded all we could with both our individual and collective light.

We cannot appreciate enlightenment without first appreciating our ignorance that pre-existed before it. If we can come to see this moment for what it really is, emerging from the dark to the light, then maybe we can move more boldly into the new dawn.

It was on the top of Mt. Washington in late January of this year that I realized that true beauty is the contrast of when darkness meets light.

travel photography
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About the Creator

Ashley Kuplin

Fortunate member of the 603 club -- born and raised in small town New Hampshire -- where the woods and great outdoors have always been a place I call my home.

#1 advocate for trying to encourage a cleaner, greener future for us all.

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