The mountains above Gangotri provided an ever-changing view. This was around noon from the shore of the Ganges. There was a lot of contrast. The sun was intense. It was hard to get pictures that accurately recorded what I was seeing. In the end, I had to do more post-processing than I do with most of my shots. But this is a fair rendition of what I saw. (18 May 2015)
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Everything looks so different here the night before the previous picture. I took this in 5:30 pm evening sun. This, too, is an accurate rendition of what I saw though there was so much contrast in the original photograph that you could see almost total darkness in the shadows on the left. The following pictures show the many faces of the few mountains you see at the end of the valley. (17 May 2015)
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This was 5:30 the morning after we arrived. The sun was up but long from coming over the mountains yet. (15 May 2015)
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A minute later the second peak form the right in the previous picture looked like this. (15 May 2015)
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A few minutes earlier lightened up a little, the right peak with its little cloud looked like this. (15 May 2015)
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By 7:40 clouds had formed and you could clearly see the ridges and layers of mountains in the slanting, early morning sun. (15 May 2015)
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Two hours later the wind was blowing snow over the drifts on the top of one of the mountains almost hidden by clouds in the previous picture. (15 May 2015)
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At the same time, clouds blow past the next mountain. (15 May 2015)
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At 7:45 the next day the sun was again showing the mountain ridges as the day before, but in completely different detail. (16 May 2015)
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By ten they showed us another face. (16 May 2015)
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A closer look at the right peak reveals details not apparent in the last picture. (16 May 2015)
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By noon wind was blowing snow off the mountain or creating clouds from cold moist air. (16 May 2015)
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By seven in the evening, the sun is down. Clouds have moved in to obscure the high peaks. Only the low mountain remain to reflect the evening skylight. (16 May 2015)
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At 7:30 in the morning three days later the source of Ganga’s shows yet a different face. (19 May 2015)
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The two right peaks sit tranquilly in a mid-morning blue sky. (21 May 2015)
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The late evening sun baths the left mountains. (20 May 2015)
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The same mountains as those in the last picture look very different in the mid-morning sun the next day. (21 May 2015)
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As we left we had several vantage points along the road down the valley to look back again at these magnificent mountains. And there is another huge one on the right that we could not even see from the bottom of the valley in Gangotri. (21 May 2015)
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