The sun setting into the winterline on the Brahmatal trek

Near Jhandi Top, Brahmatal trek, Chamoli · December 2020

A sliver of sun, pink at its edges, sits in a band of gray. The gray is the winterline — a layer of haze that settles over the valleys on winter evenings and works like a second horizon. The sun sets into it minutes before it would reach the real one.

Winterline is fascinating to look at. The sky is darkest right around the sun, and the orange sits higher up, far from it. This was shot on the way down from the summit point of the Brahmatal trek, close to Jhandi Top. Somewhere under the gray are the Garhwal foothills.

Photograph: Hisalu