A man captured the moment he discovered a “ghost” walking beside him on the mountain.
According to Newsflare, Chris Randall, 45, was walking on Red Pike near Wasdale Head, Lake District, Cumbria, England when he spotted a “mountain ghost” (Brocken spectre) obscured by fog walking alongside him and quickly recorded this rare moment.
Chris Randall shared: “The Brocken ghost appears as if you have a shadow walking beside you, coming and going with the fog and light. It’s quite bizarre and a little scary. I had camped the night before, so I knew there was mist covering the area, and I hoped to see the clouds that day. As soon as I caught sight of it out of the corner of my eye, I knew exactly what it was.”
The moment the “ghost” walked beside Chris Randall on the mountain.
Chris, a food producer from Buxton, Derbyshire, stated: “I hike on the hills a lot, which is quite common in the mountains. For many years, I’ve tried to catch a glimpse of the Brocken ghost; however, the weather conditions must be right for this phenomenon to occur.”
Scientists refer to this extremely rare natural phenomenon as the Brocken spectre. It was named after Johann Silberschlag, who first discovered and described the phenomenon in 1780. Since then, many people have witnessed and documented moments of the Brocken Spectre in various locations around the world.
However, the most frequent sightings occur at the summit of Brocken in the Harz Mountains of Germany. This is also why the peculiar optical phenomenon is named Brocken.
The Brocken is a rare optical phenomenon where the observer’s shadow is magnified to a giant size and cast onto a cloud or mist of suitable density in the direction opposite to the sun. The shadow often appears enormous because the observer’s shadow is projected onto water droplets at varying distances from the eye, distorting the perception of depth.
This phenomenon can appear on any misty mountainside, cloud band, or be seen from an airplane.
