Steven Cooke, Almost There (LANDSCAPE 2025)

"Almost there" is what I kept telling myself during the assent of Mt Oliver in Aoraki / Mt Cook National Park in New Zealand. And that was a after several month of getting fit in Australia carrying all of my overnight gear on test hikes! With wind chill temperatures of -14 the shooting conditions were challenging to say the least. This capture was taken August 2024 in the early evening after the wind had dropped and I had had a couple of hrs to recover from the hike up during the day. Unfortunately weather forced me off the next day but I shall return in July 2025 for a second attempt at getting wonderful alpine landscape shots.

Images have been resized for web display, which may cause some loss of image quality. Note: Original high-resolution images are used for judging.