An Office Just for Mountains

A broad wooden building on a golden hillside, with distant mountains behind, is dedicated to mountains. Upstairs, a weather room has a model peak on a round table under a small rain cloud, a surveying room has uniformed officials measuring a model mountain with a red gauge pole, and a cool shop with shelves of snow in jars sells small snowy peaks to a customer. A cosy corner room has two smiling mountains sitting in a green booth beside a tiny village on a round table. Downstairs, a clerk sits at a curved desk beneath a big world map with red routes, a uniformed officer weighs and sorts rocks labelled limestone, granite and volcanic, and two workers carry a tray of tiny pine trees past rows of luggage. Footprints and map colours guide the eye from room to room.