Snowy Tops

1985: Mountains in the Antarctic

Let's head over to some inhospitable mountains in Antarctica located in Queen Maud Land. This is part of the Norwegian Antarctica where there are 12 research stations, only 6 of which are occupied all year round. 

Here are the stamps

with their little teams of huskies. On the left is Sagbladet or The Saw Blade and on the right Hoggestabben Butte, a butte is an isolated hill with vertical sides and a relatively flat top, and the translation of Hoggestabben is - The Chopping Block.

1991: Mount Hengshan (Shanxi Province)

A more accessible mountain in China is next and it is the northernmost of "The Five Great Mountains of China",  Mount Hengshan in Shanxi Province.  A mountain sacred to Taoists but one of the least visited of the sacred mountains and so relatively less commercialised. The wikipedia article is quite lyrical about it saying that to get to the top is "a lovely hike of three hours where the summit is covered in fragrant lilac blossom in June"   

Its most famous aspect is the Hanging Temple which is set into a sheer precipice 246 ft (75m) high. It was built in 386-534 and unusual in that it combines three traditions - Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism.

 55 - Shrine of Hengshan carved in the rock face  80 - Temples in Flying Stone Grotto

The mountain was painted by Yang Wenqing (b1954) and engraved by Li Defu.  Yang Wenqing has painted many stamps for China Post and won the Best Stamp Painting award in 1980 and 1982.

Lastly is a stamp featuring the Rätikon Massif and the Lindauer Hütte which perches at 1300m, perhaps a good place to take off ones hiking boots for rest and recuperation ready for the next day in the mountains.  Featured on one of Austria's lovely definitive stamp series of the 1970s sometimes called Beautiful Austria, although my catalogue calls them rather prosaically 'views'.

An entry to Sunday Stamps II theme - Mountains - reach the heights at See It On A Postcard