Chasing light in Wild China
Henry waits for the weather other guides cancel.
Most guides check the forecast and cancel when it rains. I check it and pack an extra layer. Rain is when the mountains do their best work.
I grew up near the mountains, so fog and mist were my childhood. Other kids had cartoons; I had clouds rolling through valleys. When I became a guide, I learned that the scenes most travellers dream of happen in exactly the weather most tours avoid.
One autumn morning I took a photographer to a ridge at 5am, in thick fog. He was furious for the first hour. Then the fog lifted all at once, and the valley below filled with golden light and a sea of cloud. He didn't speak for ten minutes. Then he cried a little. He still uses that shot as his profile picture.
That's what I mean when I say I don't chase good weather — I chase the moment the weather breaks. Tourists get the postcard. My guests get the moment before it.