One woman's backward glance over a life that included bringing up two boys, dealing with a mother who had Alzheimers, yet leading people into the mountains of Russia, Nepal, Tibet and Morocco as a trek leader at the same time. She also found time to climb the Matterhorn and Mount Kenya, and to walk the John Muir Trail in California and the Wind Rivers in Wyoming, amongst others. Throughout there is a feeling of loving the space of the mountains, and living in them when possible alone, deriving strength and pleasure from simplicity of the hills.