From the moment I opened it, this book was the start of a journey that would take me outside myself, as my two treks to the Pindari Glacier has proved, as only the mountains can do. It’s a deeply felt, personal story of travelling on many levels and Alter weaves the threads of the spirtual, physical and emotional into a cohesive narrative whole. For one, the book is an account of his personal triumph against emotional and physical trauma, caused when still unidentified assailants forced themselves into his house in Mussoorie early one morning in August 2008, and left his wife and him knifed and seriously wounded.