Brocken Spectre Phenomenon at Girdlestone Peak

A “spooky” Brocken spectre phenomenon, featuring as part of the Guardian’s “Photo Highlights of the Day,” is seen at Girdlestone Peak on Tarn Ridge in the Tararua mountain range.

“As dawn breaks, [the light sends] the shadow of a climber surrounded by a rainbow halo on to the swirling mist behind. A Brocken spectre (from the German Brockengespenst), is the apparently enormous and magnified shadow of an observer, cast upon the upper surfaces of clouds opposite the sun.”

Original article by The Guardian, March 12, 2015.

Photo by Murdo MacLeod for the Guardian.