Song of the Alpine: The Rocky Mountain Tundra Through the Seasons [Paperback]

Joyce Gellhorn (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 2002

Celebrating her life-long love for the "land above the trees," author Joyce Gellhorn takes readers on a season-by-season tour of the alpine tundra. With clear, readable prose and 140 beautiful color photographs (from her collection that spans some twenty-five years), Gellhorn reveals the subtle wonders of this haunting landscape. The plants and animals that populate this often harsh and unforgiving environment have evolved remarkable strategies for survival in their high mountain home. Faced with bitter cold, scouring winds and fierce storms, they must somehow hold on and still find water and nourishment. Gellhorn tells us how they do it, and the intricacies and precariousness of these strategies are astonishing.

The high country of the Colorado Rocky Mountains has been a destination and a home for Joyce Gellhorn for more than fifty years, including some twelve years spent living with her family at the University of Colorado’s research station, Science Lodge—a log cabin at 9,500 feet. Like the snow that would sift through the chinks in the cabin, the alpine, despite its harshness, captured her heart.

She writes: "The clear mountain air, the scenery, the invigorating feeling of physical activity, and the fascinating plants, animals, and insects captivated me. Through the years, these wind-blown forlorn places continue to excite me. It is their wildness—untamed and unpredictable. No matter how many times I visit the alpine, even areas I know intimately, it always shows a different face."

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

"Song of the Alpine" presents a loving, up-close look at the high tundra of the Rocky Mountains.

About the Author

Joyce Gellhorn, whose favorite season is winter, has taught classes in Boulder County for twenty-five years to students ranging in age from four to eighty-four. She teaches classes for Boulder County Nature Association and at the University of Colorado’s Mountain Research Station and has taught for Boulder Valley Schools, University of Colorado Continuing Education, Rocky Mountain Nature Association, Elderhostel, Keystone Science School and Teton Science School. She holds a Ph.D. in botany with a specialty in plant ecology. "Song of the Alpine" is her first book.

Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Johnson Books; First Edition edition (October 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1555662803
• ISBN-13: 978-1555662806
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 7 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,468,479 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Gorgeous book, but not just a pretty face, May 13, 2003

By 

Timecheck "backpack45.com - Camino Chronicle... (Oakland, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Song of the Alpine: The Rocky Mountain Tundra Through the Seasons (Paperback)

This is a gorgeous, fact filled book, but hard to classify. Joyce Gellhorn is an adventurous women - one of the women backpackers interviewed in Susan Alcorn's book, We're in the Mountains, Not Over the Hill: Tales and Tips From Seasoned Women Backpackers. Song of the Alpine tells how at the age of 15, Joyce Gellhorn and her sister decided to climb all of Colorado's 14,000 foot peaks, starting with Longs Peak. The author was hooked on the high tundra country, and made a career of it, getting a Ph.D. in botany, with a specialty in plant ecology. Her book is beautiful, glossy paged, lots of color photos, but by the end of it you realize that you have also picked up a huge amount of factual information - the physics of thunderstorms, the winter habits of pikas, wet snow and dry snow avalanches, early mountain climbers - worth the price just for the pika photos.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Stirring Portrayal of a Magical Place, February 11, 2003

By 

Stephen R. Jones (Boulder, Colorado) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Song of the Alpine: The Rocky Mountain Tundra Through the Seasons (Paperback)

Song of the Alpine presents fascinating details about plant and animal survival in North America's harshest and most scenic landscape: how ptarmigan burrow into the snow to survive frigid winter nights, how sky pilots use their skunky smell to attract pollinators, how the bright yellow petals of snow buttercups act as solar collectors. Lyrical prose depicting the flow of the seasons and struggle for survival weaves these ecological insights together. Lovely color photographs of wildflowers, butterflies, wildlife, and dramatic weather events accompany the text. I will read this book over and over, and I will carry it with me whenever I go camping in the high country.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Song of the Alpine, March 17, 2003

By 

"casscolorado" (Boulder, Colorado United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Song of the Alpine: The Rocky Mountain Tundra Through the Seasons (Paperback)

Joyce Gellhorn is a botanist, a science teacher, a gifted photographer and a passionate observer and explorer of the natural world. She has combined these talents with fine writing in her book, "Song of the Alpine". This book is a treasure for anyone who has wandered the fragile and exquisite land above the trees whether in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado (Gellhorn's home) or high peaks anywhere in the world. Ever wonder how the tiny alpine flowers survive in the rocky alpine terrains? How the ptarmagin manage not only to survive but actually to gain weight during the long, harsh winters? Why when spring comes to the Rockies, yellow and grey butterflies (Rocky Mountain parnassian) swarm the meadows of yellow flowers (stone crop)? "Song of the Alpine" illustrates and explains these fascinating adaptions and interactions and symbiotic relationships. Gellhorn's book includes over 140 photographs to accompany her text. The book is a guide and an inspiration to the reader. Gellhorn asks us to bear witness: to observe the dance of the tiniest insects, to study the amazing design of a snow crystal and to experience the grand symphony of the alpine weather in all seasons. This book teaches us that the more we can know of the natural world, the more we will experience the song and the joy that Gellhorn so eloquently evokes.