Mount Hermon

We reached the peak of Hermon by accident and without planning. We were staying at a guesthouse in Nimrod, very close by, but it was already the end of the season – March. Initially, we only wanted to go to the foot of the mountain, to throw some snow at each other, if any remained at all. From afar, the mountain looked dusted with faded white, not much more than a winter decoration that had almost vanished.

But when we drove up, surprise — the site was open, and the snow was definitely there. The children jumped out of the car and started playing, building, rolling – and throwing, of course – as if they hadn’t seen real snow in a long time. We took the cable car up. The cable car creaked and swayed, but the view was breathtaking – gradually, the white world opened up in all directions. The clouds floated low – huge gray, almost purple masses, moving slowly like sky giants. Between them, openings of light appeared – one moment revealing a green landscape of the Golan Heights and southern Lebanon below me, and the next moment everything was sealed in thick fog, as if someone had drawn a curtain. The sun played with us – appearing for seconds, flashing on the ice, and then disappearing again behind layers of clouds. The snow was soft in some places, hardened and gray in others, and in between – protruding rocks, a reminder that this mountain is always wild, even when it wears white.

I photographed. I walked slowly, meter by meter, with a camera in a frozen hand. This is one of the few times I’ve seen the entire spectrum of white shades – from blinding white through grayish-misty to ice-blue. Each picture was like a breath. At home, I combined everything into a long panorama – a full rotation, with the upper cable car station on the left and right as usual, lines of small skiers in between, the winding path below and clouds above.

After a few hours of sliding, jumping, laughing, and also a fall or two, we went back down. The children were wet to their underwear, but with huge smiles. And so were we. Because we went up without plans, and came down with an experience.