Step by Step

The book opens with a small anecdote. A colleague of the author's son admires his fondness for cycling, skiing and mountain climbing and assumes his father must have taught him those things. The son sets him straight: it was his mother.

Judy Schafer's interest in the outdoors began in Montana, where family trips into the mountains with her parents set her on a path she never left. She made more than a dozen attempts to reach the summit of Mount Rainier in Washington State, and seven of them succeeded. With each climb, her sense of awe and respect for the mountain grew as she confronted its dangers.

Wanting her sons, Tim and Kris, to grow up with the same connection to nature, she took them out early, bringing them onto the trail as soon as they were old enough to carry their own packs. Over many years the three of them explored forests and high peaks together. Along the way they faced physical hardship, personal setbacks and injury, and the bond among them deepened as the boys grew up and they pursued their shared goal of reaching the top of Mount Rainier.

The book gathers these outings into a collection of stories. It covers the excitement and setbacks, the striking details of the places they went, and both the hazards and the rewards of life on the trails and above the clouds. The journey moves from modest beginnings to high summits, with the author and her sons facing it together under her guidance.