Mountains on trip from St. Moritz to Tirano

Don't be confused, the city of Tirano, Italy is not where the winter Olympics were held.  This is a small city and nary a store was open.  The ride was simply spectacular.  The Alps as a back drop had us out of our seats on the Bernina Express.  Fortunately the windows did open.  If we would have been on a cruise ship it would have tipped over for all of us were on one side of the car snapping pictures. 

Cameras take far better pictures when the light is about the same but when the foreground is dark trees and the background is brilliant white snow caps, well it usually over exposes the white or under exposes the dark green.  Add being on a train that is moving and you have an impossible situation for taking high quality photos.  Depth is another issue.  Hopefully you can get some appreciation for the scenery but quite honestly you had to be there to capture the entire scene.

This trip was the hit of the tour up to this date.  It was breath taking to see the glaciers and white snow capped Alps in the background.

This is the best of several pics.  The mountain peak was so white; the sun reflected off the snow like a mirror!

Village on the way

This is one of my favorites.  The haze was likely caused by the lake!

This old fella blew the gals a kiss and boarded a bus with a group of locals.

The Bernina Express is one of the most scenic railway lines in the world.  It climbs Europe's steepest rail ascents.  Here we see a village below.  We kept weaving our way down from way up high to level with the town.

The valley winds down to Tirano which is hardly 1500 feet high.  The Mountains peaks are close to 8,000 feet

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Our train weaves us towards canyons filled with glaciers

You can spot a glacier when the snow mass looks dirty and has obvious depth at the end.

This lake is artificial, a huge dam captures the melting snow and the water is then used to produce electricity.

Hydroelectric power supplies the area

The glaciers are retreating, waiting for more snow to arrive soon.

The desert appearing ground belies the winter that should arrive in a few weeks.

This is a breath taking scene

Di says you have no clue how high these are.  The air was thin!

Clouds seem to just roll in and and out.

Click here ----> Tirano, Italy