November is the month of clear blue skies, stunning autumn colours and spectacular mountain views! Unfortunately, not many people choose November as a month to trek. We hope these photographs change people’s minds.

Here are the winners of the Trek Photographer of the Month for November 2018!

Winner

Trekkers on the Sandakphu trail – Snehil Suthar

Sandakphu is a trek with variety. One minute you’re inside the forest and the next minute you burst out into a vastly open trail with long distance views. You don’t get such vast openings on most other treks. In this picture, we love the capture of scale. The leading lines come beautifully into play and the rule of thirds too. It makes for a great frame.

1st Runner Up

David and Goliath – Rajorshi Chatterjee

There are many pictures of the Kanchenjunga range from the Sandakphu trek. But it’s rare to see a picture of the Everest range, and at such close quarters! We love the picture for the rarity of it!

2nd Runner Up

View from Sankri – Ritu Rindani

This picture could be in a coffee table book about the remote villages of our country. It captures the idyllic setting of the village, the wisps of low lying clouds like they were meant to be there, the faint snow on the faraway mountains. For the villagers, these clouds mark the beginning of cold days to come. Lower in the villages, they bring hail and rain. Higher up, they come down as snow, bringing down the temperatures drastically in the process. It’s a wonderful story-telling shot!

Trekkers’ Choice Winner

Odyssey – Payal Morankar

Payal has chosen a wonderful caption for her picture from Phulara Ridge. The journey to the top is indeed a long one, and considering it’s one of the few ridge treks in our country, it gives you the pleasure of seeing the long road ahead of you. That’s what you’re looking at in this picture.

Congratulations to the winners!

The winners will win Trek Vouchers of Rs 5000, Rs 3000 and Rs 2000! The Trekkers’ Choice Winner get this super useful Spion day pack by AdventureWorx!

Thank you for participating! We hope you continue to trek and click away!

Nominations

Walking on the edge – Sruthi Sekar

On a trek, you learn to expect the unexpected. This is one of those (un)expectations — heavy snow in November at an altitude below 11,000 ft. We love the monochrome and the contrast of black trekkers against white snow in this shot!

Serene and Peaceful – Sourab Mokhasi

With the advent of Instagram, we’ve been getting more and more vertical photographs of late. Many of them fail to impress on a desktop screen. But this one caught our eye. We love the stronghold on light in this shot, and the composition — despite the focus being on the small inhabitation in the woods, it captures the stream, the forests, the hills and clouds beautifully!

The Sleeping Buddha – Rishabh Shah

Sandakphu is one of the best treks to experience clouds. Standing above the clouds, witnessing sunlight play with the clouds, it’s a wonderful sight! To top it all, you have the Kanchenjunga range in the distance — a magnificent sight beyond the clouds! We love this picture for capturing that moment when clouds, sun, the mountains, all came together.

Star trails – Sruthi Sekar

It’s been a while since we saw pictures of star trails in our photo contest entries. We’re giving this a nomination for the sheer effort it takes to come out of the tent at night, set up the camera in the blistering cold (usually has to be done without gloves) and wait for that perfect shot.