It has been called the "Throne Room of the Mountain Gods" because of its awesome location amidst the world's highest peaks. Yet the impression of standing at Concordia can be of breathless inspiration at the mountain masses above - or of wonder at the tiny details below.
In this apparently frozen and lifeless wasteland 4500 metres above sea level, there is movement! If one takes the time to look and listen, nearly everything is moving - the air, the clouds, the ice, the rocks, the meltwater. Even tiny spiders, flies and the occasional bird flit across the sky or ground to catch a better glimpse of Nature's spectacle. Perhaps it is man's need of sensory stimulation which makes him go mad when there is no sound, no smell, and no movement. Perhaps it is the extreme effort required to hear the friendly drip of the melting ice, to sense the nearly imperceptible odor of sun-warmed rock or to scan the chaotic jumble of the glacier for movement which provides the simultaneous physical fatigue and clearness of mind at these altitudes. Perhaps it is the renewed appreciation of minute detail far below our normal level of consciousness which etch into our minds vivid memories of places such as this.
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