“A snapshot from mountaineer's life”. Have you ever wondered how does a mountaineer's day start? I will give you a hint: you wake up at 3 am, set the stove, wake up your partner, pretend it is warm, quickly consume a high-calorie breakfast, watch your friends slowly ascending the icy slopes of your dream summit with their tiny head torches glimmering against perfectly blue ice, and hope for the good weather. One would ask: why all this trouble? The answer is easy: for the love of the adventure and the unknown. Location: Chamonix, Haute Savoye, France. (Photo and caption by Kamil Tamiola/National Geographic Traveler Photo Contest)

ATTENTION! All pictures are presented in high resolution. To see Hi-Res images – just TWICE click on any picture. In other words, click small picture – opens the BIG picture. Click BIG picture – opens VERY BIG picture.

“Kumbh Mela is a mass Hindu pilgrimage in which Hindus gather at the Ganges river. The normal Kumbh Mela is celebrated every 3 years, the Ardh (half) Kumbh Mela is celebrated every six years at Haridwar and Prayag, the Purna (complete) Kumbh takes place every twelve years, at four places (Prayag (Allahabad), Haridwar, Ujjain, and Nashik). The Maha (great) Kumbh Mela which comes after 12 “Purna Kumbh Melas”, or 144 years, is held at Allahabad.

The last Ardh Kumbh Mela was held over a period of 45 days beginning in January 2007, more than 70 million Hindu pilgrims took part in the Ardh Kumbh Mela at Prayag, and on January 15, the most auspicious day of the festival of Makar Sankranti, more than 5 million participated. The previous Maha Kumbh Mela, held in 2001, was attended by around 60 million people, making it at the time the largest gathering anywhere in the world in recorded history”. – Wikipedia

Photo: Sadhus (holy men) smoke at their camp near the ritual site at Sangam, the confluence of the Ganges, Yamuna and mythical Saraswati rivers during the Ardh Kumbh Mela festival (Half Pitcher festival) January 18, 2007 in Allahabad, India. Millions of Hindu pilgrims have flocked to the largest religious gathering in the world which lasts for 45 days in northern India. The festival commemorates the mythical conflict between gods and demons over a pitcher filled with the “nectar of immortality”. Devotees believe that taking a holy dip in the Ganges at this time washes away their sins and paves the path to salvation. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)

Garbage pickers collect ride on donkey cart while looking for recyclable materials at a rubbish dump in the outskirts of Baghdad, Iraq, August 23, 2016. Despite its huge untapped oil and gas reserves and steadily rising oil output and revenue, 23 percent of the population live below the poverty line, according to the Ministry of Planning. (Photo by Khalid al Mousily/Reuters)

David Sharp, an engineer with Lockheed Martin, displays the “Samurai Flyer”, an aviation design inspired by the maple seed, during the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International Conference August 16, 2011 in Washington, DC. Lockheed Martin unveiled the new design and demonstrated vertical takeoff and landing, stable hover, and on-board video streaming of the aircraft during their demonstration. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)

A man with a tattoo of Aung San Suu Kyi takes part in a protest against the military coup and to demand the release of the elected leader in Yangon, Myanmar on February 8, 2021. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)

The International Space Station (ISS) moving in front of the sun in November 2020 by astrophotographer Andrew McCarthy. These incredible photos capture the clearest images ever taken of the International Space Station (ISS) moving in front of both the moon and the sun. The photos, taken within days of one another, were captured in the space of less than a second, as the space station could be clearly seen zooming across against the bright backdrops of both moon and sun. Photographer Andrew McCarthy, from California, USA, said the photo of the ISS in front of the sun, in broad daylight, was “one of my trickiest shots ever”. (Photo by Andrew McCarthy/South West News Service)

In this photograph taken on February 18, 2016, Pakistani children ride on swings in the predominantly Pashtun Korangi District of Karachi. In a rundown district of Karachi, Rabia balks at a neighbour's proposal to vaccinate her children, demonstrating one of the biggest hurdles to eradicating polio in Pakistan by the end of the year: confused and frightened parents. (Photo by Asif Hassan/AFP Photo)

A woman and child look on at volcanic ash rising into the air during the eruption of Mount Ibu, as seen from Duono Village in West Halmahera, North Maluku province, on January 15, 2025. (Photo by AZZAM via AFP Photo)