My first impressions after reading Mountains of Minds is that Robert Macfarlane truly understands the sport of mountaineering and that he holds a pure passion for what mountains and the sport represent for not only himself but for people throughout history. I can honestly say that his imagery that he creates within his writing is powerful and provocative. His writing is lyrical, poetic and engaging, and he describes what he sees with beautiful prose so you can drink in the views that he has experienced or others have seen.I get the sense that to him mountains are more than just geological features that span the earth, but rather celestial and subliminal forces that spark true curiosity as well as spirituality for those that are brave enough to endure the most extreme conditions that this earth has to offer.

One aspect of the book that stuck out to me was the notion that mountaineering for most people created a sense of pleasurable fear. Those crazy enough to explore and to put themselves through the turmoil of climbing the most treacherous peaks in the world like to operate with a level of fear that for them is enjoyable and that’s why they keep going back to climbing. Now most ordinary people wouldn’t find any joy from a constant dose of fear and that’s why for centuries the world’s mountains were such a mysterious and desolate place. the fear of the unknown kept humanity at bay for centuries until finally curiosity overtook humanity and the world’s peaks began to be summited and mapped out.

This is exemplified within the second chapter of the book when Macfarlane writes about how people begin to wonder how mountains were formed and how old the earth was. For most people mountains were seen as an obstacle a desolate unlivable domain, eventually people began to wonder and thus sparked the need to understand them better and to conquer their peaks. This sparked great debate and controversy over their creation and how old the earth really was. I found this part of the book to be not only informational but also interesting as I had no real understanding of the theories and people that tried to answer the question. I found this chapter helpful because it gives a true background story of what mountains were to people before they started exploring them. As the chapter progresses we see how humanities perceptions of the mountains change from fear and an almost taboo like aroura around them to a fascination and yearning to explore and better understand them from a scientific aspect.Last I would like to point out that I found the way in which Robert Macfarlane wrote the book to be a breath of fresh air. Rather than bombard the reader with accounts of mountain exploration and historical information, he tastefully ties in his own experiences that help the reader to really understand what he is trying to convey through his writing. One example of this is in the very beginning of the book when

Last I would like to point out that I found the way in which Robert Macfarlane wrote the book to be a breath of fresh air. Rather than bombard the reader with accounts of mountain exploration and historical information, he tastefully ties in his own experiences that help the reader to really understand what he is trying to convey through his writing. One example of this is in the very beginning of the book when he relates his experience of climbing the Lagginhorn and the pain and numbness that he felt but couldn’t turn back without conquering the peak, much like Maurice Herzogg and his account of Annapurna where he nearly froze to death. Overall the book was a fantastic read and I would recommend it to mountain enthusiast and non-mountain enthusiast alike.