We heard there were moose at the second lake, but by the time we reached Lake Blanche, the sky was on fire. We weren’t prepared to go further.

I put my feet, one after the other, in ages-old glacier grinds, unable to picture this rocky landscape covered in ice. The humps and grooves were mesmerizing, filled with secrets.

I stood for a long time, lost in trying to understand this place. None of us could tear our eyes away. And then, in just a matter of minutes, we were hiking in darkness, each of us wrapped in a tiny pool of light, the mountain that was so preset and inexplicable before now invisible, forgotten.

We followed our feet back towards the little things we knew.