Glacier Trail Jigsaw Puzzle

Glacier Trail at every size

Par is the time your score is measured against at that size. The rest is measured from the picture itself: how many pieces have a near-twin by colour once it is cut.

What the picture shows

A rocky trail runs from the bottom centre up across a slope on the left, with one hiker walking away on it, carrying a pack and walking poles. Stacked stone cairns stand beside it, the biggest on the left. Patches of old snow lie on the slope above, and small pink and yellow alpine flowers grow among the rocks. In the middle a grey glacier tongue, cracked and streaked with debris, comes down from snowy peaks and ends in a blue-white ice front at a pale grey-turquoise lake on the right. Chunks of ice and rock islands float in the lake. Dark jagged peaks with snow rise on both sides under white cloud and patches of blue sky.

Solving Glacier Trail

At 50 pieces about 7 pieces in 10 already have a near-twin, because rock, ice, cloud and lake water are all shades of grey. By 500 pieces nearly every piece has one. The hiker, the cairns, the flowers and the blue ice front stay easy to place. The lake is the plainest area, and at 1000 pieces about 1 piece in 8 has no detail.

Start with the trail at the bottom edge and follow it up to the hiker, placing the cairns as you pass them. Then the lake on the right, with its floating ice. Build the glacier from its ice front up to the snowfield. The dark peaks on each side come next, then the clouds and blue sky. Leave the grey boulder slopes in the foreground for last, sorted by the flowers and snow patches on them.

Glacier Trail is the hardest mountain picture at 100 and 200 pieces, about 8 pieces in 10 with a near-twin at 100. Autumn Canyon has more at 50, Mountain Village at 500, and at 1000 the village ties with it.

More mountain jigsaw puzzles

• Green HillsA mountain hay meadow of fireweed and scabious, with a wooden hay shed and forested ridges behind.
• Alpine LakeA turquoise lake under a snowy peak, larches turning yellow on its shores and two backpacks on the rocks.
• Mountain VillageWooden chalets, a white church spire and three grazing cows below clouded snowy peaks.
• Autumn CanyonA muddy river winds between red sandstone cliffs, lined with yellow cottonwoods.