Amazing Clouds Roll Over Alps Mountaintops

This amazing image, snapped on July 25, 2011, shows the top of the Alps mountain range covered in a massive blanket of stratocumulus clouds, which appear puffy from a distance. The amazing vista evokes the greatness of nature and man's desire to conquer it.

The peak in the distance is the Jungfrau (German for young lady), the third highest mountain in the Bernese Alps. It is only dwarfed by the Finsteraarhorn and Aletschhorn peaks. This subsection of the massive mountain range is located in Switzerland.

The image was snapped by photographer Hans van Hoogstraten, from an altitude of 11,500 feet (3,505 meters) above sea level. The clear air allows a nearly-uninterrupted line-of-sight to other mountain peaks in the background. Interestingly, most of the peaks retain their snow covers in mid-summer.