Of Men and Mountains

By Robert F Thompson (RyFT)

Jordan has a dream, he wants to be a professional mountain climber—have an agent, be sponsored by one of the big climbing houses; maybe even get on the New York Times best climber’s list. But from where he is, the top seems a long way off. Heck, on most days, through the mist and snow and fog, he can’t even see it. After years of trying, and many bad falls, he’s all but ready to give it up for good until he meets a mentor who, if she doesn’t kill him, just might help him to see that there’s more than one way to reach the clouds.

Through a fictional climb, author, Robert F Thompson, buckles hasps, cinches loops, and splices lines up the side of a mountain called the big dream. A metaphor for the climb every dreamer faces, and every adventurer dares.

Robert’s first novel was published in 2001.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tricorner Publishing
• Release date: Apr 5, 2011
• ISBN: 9781452469140

Robert F Thompson (RyFT)

Robert F Thompson, aka RyFT Brand, is a fiction author living in and meandering through Bucks County Pennsylvania. His first novel, A Book of Beginnings, was published in 2001.

Book preview

Of Men and Mountains

RiFT

This is a work of fiction. Any similarities to

persons living or dead are purely coincidental.

Tricorner Publishing’s Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2007

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For Patricia Trish Cacek

Thanks

Of Men and Mountains

Robert F. Thompson

Jordan stood at the bottom of the mountain, rope in hand, staring at the ground in sullen contemplation. It was a beautiful day; absolutely perfect for thinking, but stalling wouldn’t get him any closer to his dream.

He blew a tense breath out though pursed lips then walked his eyes up the mountain. As he did it seemed to sprout up before him, as if he were watching a time-lapse film of its growth captured over a hundred-hundred-million years time; the green, abundant and forested faded into gray stones and spires that eventually dissolved into a white haze looming above him. He narrowed his eyes, trying to pierce the clouds, searching for the elusive peak lurking somewhere high above. Most days the fog and mist hid it from sight completely. Even on the best days it was hardly visible from the ground, but it was there, a stony, jagged point piercing the sky. The true top of the mountain however, known only to those who’d heard tell of it, who’d read it in a trade journal, or had seen it in a dream, was flat, and peaceful, and perfect, and so grandly positioned it stood above the winds, the snows, and the threat of avalanche.

He checked his gear for the thousandth time. He’d managed many climbs before, but never anything this high, or dangerous. Despite all his planning, and preparing, and practice, doubt still gnawed at his courage. But he was out of excuses,