Triumphant

So perhaps this is not an amazing photo in terms of technique, and it's not exactly high resolution (I shot it using my iPhone camera....), but I still like it so I thought I'd post it here anyway.

It was taken in the early hours of the morning at the summit of Taishan - one of the five Sacred Mountains in China.

Due to a sudden impulsive decision I took an exhausting six hour-long train journey to turn up at the base of the mountain - a young, inexperienced traveller, alone and with no knowledge of where to go or the ability to speak Mandarin. It had the potential to be disastrous, but instead I was welcomed by a group of Chinese travellers (including the girl in this photo). We ended up starting the hike (with almost 7,000 steps) later that evening, climbing through the night in order to reach the summit before sunrise. I feel it's only in the moments like this when we do something totally unexpected that the greatest experiences can be had.

The feeling when we finally reached the top and watched the first rays of sunlight strike through the misty mountain landscape: Triumphant.