"Donald Mace Williams has a deep interest in, and affection for, high mountains. After a career spent mostly on flat lands, he set out to rediscover what was special about the country above timberline. He hiked the high alpine in four of America's major ranges - the Rockies, Sierra Nevada, Cascades, and northern Appalachians - and in this narrative of his travels, he tells us what he saw and learned and whom he met.

"Along the way he observes the effect age has had on his psychological and physical responses to altitude and on his ideas about how to treat the environment and notes the compromises people make between the pull of mountains and freedom and the responsibilities of making a living in the lowlands. Having observed and researched what makes timberline environments distinctive, Williams unobtrusively conveys much information on history, biology, geology, weather, archaeology, high-altitude physiology, and other matters.

"Frequently, he recounts a conversation with one or more of the interesting, diverse individuals he met on the trail or sought out for their special knowledge: writers, scientists, and climbers; a young British hiking companion who has come back to Colorado to repeat a climb on which a year previously, his two fellow climbers died; a pilot who climbs isolated peaks in the Sierra Nevada in search of bouillon can scrolls signed by famous early mountaineers; a "Literate Farmer" who pauses on a mountain trail in Vermont to discuss Robert Frost."--Jacket.