Reflections on Mountaineering: A Journey Through Life as Experienced in the Mountains is a poetry book by mountaineer Alan Goldman.
Nature has always been a great source of inspiration. It’s also the same with adventures. Together, these two have produced thousands of great literary works, classic stories, poetry, and novels that have endeared readers throughout time. From Jack London’s The Call of the Wind to Kate Harris’s Lands of Lost Borders, there is no shortage of inspiring nature narratives. Today, we will feature a modern literary work inspired by the author’s numerous mountain adventures.
“We have not lost our way on the trip to the top.” – Allan V. Goldman, Reflections on Mountaineering.
Reflections on Mountaineering: A Journey Through Life as Experienced in the Mountains is the complete title of Alan V. Goldman’s 2020 poetry book on his learnings and experiences of navigating mountains for over three decades. The book consists of eighty-one narrative-style poems written by Goldman and reflects his insights as well as personal emotions evoked while striving for success in the mountains. For Goldman, many of the moral issues confronting us are also present in the high mountains, but to a sharper degree. Goldman shares his musings in this as a man who discovered hiking, Colorado’s 14ers, and eventually fell in love with mountain climbing.
Goldman’s poetry address tackles our perception of human perception of reality, the meaning of life, fear, the beauty of overcoming challenges, and the role of luck, fate, and chance. Goldman also shares with his readers the “hidden” truths that mountaineers like him experience.
Ah, mountain of my dreams, will you spur me on to achieve the impossible and
Travel where the very presence of humans was not foreseen?
Will you enable me to walk into a picture postcard, or will you deflate my aspiration of
Ever attaining the pristine quintessential model of this broken world?
-Excerpt from Mountain of My Dreams, Alan V. Goldman
However, Reflections on Mountaineering is not just an emotional journey. More than anything else, it is a masterpiece that takes readers to high altitudes, avalanches, glacier crevasses, frostbites, and the majestic views of summits and mountain tops. Readers get to experience the ecstasy that great climbers like Muir, Mallory, and Alexander experienced during their famous expeditions. It is also a book showcasing a mountaineer’s preparation, discipline, and mindset that will prove useful to those planning to embark on a grand adventure in high mountains. After all, Reflections on Mountaineering is a book about mountains and one man’s three-decade experience journeying them.
Alan V. Goldman’s Reflections on Mountaineering is a great addition to the bookshelf for mountain climbers and those who love the great outdoors. It is one unforgettable read rich with life lessons, wisdom, and emotions.
About the Author
Alan V. Goldman is an author, mountain climber, and retired lawyer. He is a product of The Horace Mann School in 1975. He finished his college education at the prestigious Harvard College in 1979. He then went on to study law at Harvard Law School, graduating in 1982. Goldman became involved with mountaineering at age 25 and started by hiking at the Appalachian Mountain Club and places like Harriman State Park and Sterling Forest. In Colorado, he discovered the idea of 14ers (climbing all 58 peaks/summits in Colorado that are above 14 000 feet). Since then, Alan V. Goldman has spent many years climbing mountains.
You can grab a copy of Reflections on Mountaineering via Amazon. You can also visit Alan V. Goldman’s website https://www.mountainreflections.art/ to learn more about the book and the author.
