At the end of March, I suddenly had some free time and wanted an adventure with a friend in Kyrgyzstan. I wanted a taste of spring in the Tien Shan Mountains—early flowers and sunshine. Instead, after driving 400 kilometers alone for seven hours over difficult snowy roads, I found myself at Chon-Ashuu Pass, almost 3,800 meters above sea level, in freezing winter.
The altitude and mountain sickness were worse than I expected. I was exhausted, cold, and completely disappointed with the scene at that moment and all my photography adventures in general, and desperately wanted to go home, feeling low and strangely lonely.
Then, almost unnoticed, a car appeared on the road, rounding a curve through the snowy landscape. I was too tired to pay any attention and simply pressed the shutter just to finish this night.
The moment I had almost ignored was the photo I had been waiting for.
I still remember the pain in my frozen hands. It somehow reminds me that magical things sometimes happen when you have stopped expecting anything.
