Freeze Frame

Winter Issue 2021

Freeze Frame: Discover the brilliant beauty of the Blue Ridge Mountains under snow and ice

WRITER:

WNC Staff

PHOTOGRAPHER:

Tom Moors

Stone Cold - Shrouded in clouds and ice, Black Balsam Knob along the Art Loeb Trail is spellbinding if not slightly foreboding.

Chill Factor - From atop a quartz rock formation, for which the Shining Rock Wilderness in Haywood County gets its name, the summit view is above it all.

Cool Rush - Located along US 276 near Brevard, Looking Glass Falls is one of WNC’s most visited cascades. Moors captured the 60-foot gusher after a snowstorm using a drone.

WhiteOut - Even with the 360-degree views thwarted by clouds, a frosty winter hike along the Appalachian Trail in the Roan Highlands rewards with tranquility and beauty.

Fire & Ice - Topping out over 6,000 feet, the Roan Highlands along the North Carolina/Tennessee border is a wondrous place, with vast grassy balds and rare spruce-fir forests that glisten under sunlit snow and ice.

After the Storm - Under the weight of fresh snowfall, a spruce tree atop Black Balsam Knob towers over surrounding underbrush, skeletal-like encased in rime ice and snow.

Starstruck - As day begins to break at Max Patch, a popular bald along the Appalachian Trail in Madison County, a camper turns their gaze to a star-studded winter sky

PHOTOGRAPHER:

Tom Moors

Winter in the Western North Carolina backcountry can be at once extreme and ominous but then captivating, revealing an enchanting wonderland that sparkles under the quiet hush of snow and ice. Take in some of our most beguiling wild places in the cold season through the lens of photographer Tom Moors.

Tom Moors

About: A professional lensman since 2016, Moors shoots for travel campaigns, magazines, and outdoor product companies, and also teaches photo workshops.

Specialty: Based in Greenville, SC, Moors’ passion for adventurous landscapes and night photography has taken him afar to places like Norway.

Find him: @tom.moors; tommoors.com

KEYWORD TAGS:

Western North Carolina