On the heights of Piz Palü, the ballet between man and immensity is played out. A majestic pyramid in the Bernina mountain range, rising to 3901 metres, Piz Palü reveals its most secret side. I captured this fleeting moment when human silhouettes venture downhill, just before the slope becomes steeper and icy.

The mountain is clad in an immaculate cloak, sculpting its relief in a striking interplay of light and shadow. Black and white sublimates this mineral choreography, revealing the texture of the névé, the sharp edges of the rock, the gaping crevasses that seem to beckon to the depths. Every detail becomes both threat and pure beauty, danger and fascination.

In this white immensity, the climbers appear as infinitesimally small dots, humbly reminding us of our place in this grandiose theater of the peaks. Their slow, methodical progress testifies to the respect due to these giants of rock and ice. They follow a fragile, ephemeral trail, soon to be erased by the wind.

This photograph captures the very essence of mountaineering: this quest for the absolute, where every step becomes a meditation, where every decision can be crucial. For isn't this the paradox of the high mountains? Drawing us ever higher, to ever more technical passages, in a perpetual dance with the elements and our own limits.