The upper regions of the world reveal a stark environment of awe-inspiring power and beauty for those prepared to venture there. In this special LEGEND photo essay featuring the mountains of Alaska, the Alps, Antarctica, India, Nepal, Norway, and Scotland, we've selected a portfolio of our favourite images from a panel of leading photographers to provide some inspiration for your own mountain adventures in the year ahead.
Xavier de le Rue, Samuel Anthamatten, and Ralph Backstrom crossing a glacier deep in the Alaskan wilderness
Tero Repo / Red Bull
High winds in the Ellsworth Mountains of Antarctica. This is the highest of all the ranges in Antarctica, forming a 200 mile chain of mountains on the western edge of the Ronne Ice Shelf in Marie Byrd Land
Zac Poulton
A snowboarder charges the fall line on a steep variant of Cosmiques Couloir, one of the classic ski mountaineering descents in the Mont Blanc massif, Chamonix
David Pickford
Ascending a large icefield high on Nanda Devi East (7434m) in the Kumaun Himalaya, India
Mark Thomas / Jöttnar Pro Team
Jöttnar Pro Team member Alison Culshaw taking the straight line down in the Chamonix Valley
Daniel Wildey
Making slow progress on a knife-edge ridge in an alpine white-out
John Thornton
High on the Rogue Pitch of Point Five Gully, Ben Nevis, Scotland
Connor Holdsworth
Mont Blanc du Tacul seen from the Grand Envers in an incoming winter storm. Shortly after this image was taken the entire Mont Blanc massif vanished in cloud for the next 36 hours
David Pickford
Three climbers moving together on Mount Vinson (4,892 metres), the highest mountain in Antarctica. The Vinson massif is 21 miles long and lies just 750 miles from the South Pole. It forms part of the Sentinel Range of the Ellsworth Mountains
Zac Poulton
Xavier de le Rue and Samuel Anthamatten ascend a couloir in Svalbard, Norway, prior to making a ski and snowboard descent
Tero Repo / Red Bull
A climber watches the sun rising over Tso Mori lake from the icefields of Mentok II (6150m) in southeast Ladakh, Indian Himalaya
David Pickford
High on Denali, Alaska
Jonathan Griffith / Alpine Exposures
Ilyushin IL76 on the final approach to Union Glacier, Antarctica
Zac Poulton
Sunrise above a cloud inversion on icefields high above the Mera La, Solukhumbu, Nepal
David Pickford
On the narrow ridge of Liathach in deep midwinter, Torridon, Scotland
Will Herman
Eerie cloud formations above Mount Vinson base camp, Antarctica
Zac Poulton